The Three Brothers of Ambition
by Firemaker
Summary: Three boys, from different backgrounds find themselves drawn to each other by one common trait, Ambition. One wishing to restore his family name, another seeking to live up to the name of his father and a third seeking riches and fame. NextGen  not slash
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

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><p>Scorpius watched as the figures of his mother and father grwe ever distant. He felt a twinge of sadness at the prospect of not seeing his parents for 3 months, but even more than that he felt excited. He was 11 years old and finally after all the stories he'd been told by his father about Hogwarts he would get to experience it for himself. He took a seat in an empty carriage and then stretched out his arms. Thoughts of the talks he had his father had had before he'd left Malfoy manner went through his head.<p>

_"Dad, what was Hogwarts like for you?" Scorpius asked, age 11. Draco looked at him thoughtfully._

_Being a Father had changed many things for Draco. It was hard work, and the last thing he wanted was his son to go into Hogwarts the way he had. A spoiled brat. He understood that now. After the war was over, having Potter of all people stand up for his mother, saving his family from what would have been life imprisonment in Azkaban had shaken his life. Everything he thought he knew about the world had begun to fall to pieces the day Voldemort fell. And the day that Harry Potter had testified in his favour and his mother's favour had shattered it. He was forced to take a good long look at himself and realised that he didn't like what he saw. This had led to him taking a long hard look at his family too, their insistence on the pureblood dogma. Where had it gotten them? Nowhere. Their family name in tatters, even the wealth they once had was nearly all gone. They had all been an arrogant fool. It wasn't totally his fault either. This he also understood. Having been spoiled from a young age and taught the ideas behind blood purity it was only natural he would fall into them. He however was loathe to make the same mistake with his son._

_"Honestly, Scorpius, it was a great school but I never understood that. I was arrogant, I thought I was better than everyone there simply because I was a rich pureblood, when I had nothing to be arrogant about."_

_Scorpius knew better than to trouble his Dad seriously about the past, his Father could get aggitated when forced to talk about it too much._

_"Don't be like me. Don't buy into any of that pureblood nonsense even if others still do. Just do me proud, that's all I ask." his father said after a lengthy silence._

_"Yes Dad."_

The way Scorpius saw it, he had a duty. It was up to him to do well, to bring back the family name from the state of disgrace it had been placed in. He would top every test, win every quidditch match and do whatever else was required to restore the Malfoy name.

Scorpius took out his wand to look at it again. He'd gotten the wand from Ollivander, a 'sycamore with a dragonheartstring, thirteen and a half inches'. Scorpius, an avid reader, had done already done an extensive amount of reading on the spells that he would be expected to perform. He'd practiced as many as he could, but some were still difficult to master.

"Aquamenti." Scorpius uttered, swishing his wand gently. A blob of water appeared infront of him, hovering in the air. He kept his wand up, focusing on the water willing it to change shape into a cube. It morphed into a cube, as he had pictured it in his mind, to his delight. Suddenly their was a noise at the door, causing him to lose concentration. The cube of water fell to the floor splashing everywhere.

A young looking tallish boy with brunette hair and blue eyes stepped in with a smile on his face.

"Wow you can do spells already! What spell was that?" he asked brightly.

"Aquamenti." Scorpius replied.

"It's cool." the boy said decidedly. "Mind if I sit in here?" Scorpius shook his head. The boy sat down and brought out his own wand. "So can you teach me that spell then? Never tried any myself, and you seem really good at this stuff." Scorpius felt a little bit of pride when he heard this. He raised his wand again.

"Aquamenti." Scorpius uttered with a strong commanding voice. This time the blob of water was bigger, he focused on it willing it to shift into a perfect sphere. It took about 10 seconds but it formed a perfect sphere. He let it fall to the ground.

"Aquanenti." the boy imitated his movement, but nothing happened.

"It's aqua-MEN-ti not aquanenti. Try it again." this time it worked for the boy who created a small amount of water which immediately fell to the ground.

"Wow, thanks... So what's your name?"

"Scorpius Malfoy."

"Well thanks, Scorpius. I'm Jason Dressen. Nice to meet you." he said with a warm smile and inviting eyes. Scorpius, never one to speak more words than were needed simply stuck out his hand and Jason shook it. Normally he never really liked associating himself with other children his age. He always found them loud, unserious and sometimes a little annoying, but he couldn't help but like Jason a little, even if most of it was due to a little flattery.

"So what house you hoping to be sorted into?" Jason asked. "Personally I'm kind of hoping for Ravenclaw, it's where my mother was you see, but she recons I'll be in Slytherin due to all my schemes."

"My whole family has been in Slytherin." Scorpius said with a slight degree of pride. He had thought about it many times, he had no problem with Slytherin, but he also thought that Ravenclaw would be just as good a fit. He couldn't see the allure of Gryffindor more than anything else. The idea of relying on bravery and brawn over planning never made any sense to him at all. As for Hufflepuff, they rarely amounted to much. He didn't have anything against any of the houses, he just saw Slytherin and Ravenclaw as the only two that would suit him.

"Slytherin, eh. Well if my mother is right and she usually is, " Jason said grinning. His smile was infectious and Scorpius couldn't help but smile too. Just then a foodcart came by being pushed by a kindly looking old woman.

"Want any treats boys?" Scorpius' mother had left him with 20 Galleons in his pocket, a large sum of money considering his family's dwinding financial position, but he felt that the money could be put to better use later, perhaps to make even more money, so he held his tongue.

"We'll take 10 chocolate frogs please." Jason said with a smile. He handed over some money and then tossed 5 of the frogs at Scorpius.

"Mum works at Gringotts you see, so we've always been fairly well off." Jason said whilst biting the head off a frog. "Trades gold with Muggle money so people can change their money into muggle money and vice-versa. M'Dad's a muggle, but he works in a bank too."

"Interesting." Scorpius simply said. And it kind of was. His father had told him that the smartest person wizard he knew was actually a muggleborn. He'd also been very clear to state that he blood purity meant nothing and that he had had to learn this the hard way. In fact it had been drilled into him.

"Not much of a talker are you." Jason said.

"Never had many people to talk to. No siblings, just my parents." he replied honestly. It was true though, he had grown up for the most part alone. But it had given him the chance to do other things such as acquire a great deal of knowledge from reading. That was one thing his Dad and him never seemed to see eye to eye on. His father, regretfully thought he read too much and that it reminded him of someone he really disliked. His mother however, ever doteful and willing to spoil him, had made sure to keep him supplied with all the books he wanted, which had led to him acquiring a small library in his room.

"Ah, I'm the eldest, got 2 younger sisters. Absolute nightmare those two." And so the journey continued. Mostly involving Jason doing a lot of talking and Scorpius a lot of listening. He learned that Jason lived in london and he had gone to a muggle primary school. After a few hours a tall red-haired girl walked into their compartment.

"Why haven't you two changed yet?" she asked them. She had a certain presense about her, and Scorpius realised immediately why almost immediately.

"You're part Veela aren't you?" he asked bashfully. He felt himself blush, but even more he was annoyed that he couldn't didn't feel in control of his body.

"My mother is half Veela yes. Anyway, you two boys should change into your robes already. Everyone else already has." she said, with a note of chiding in her voice. Scorpius connected the dots and realised that she must have been a Weasley. His father seemed to have a profound dislike for the large family but he had never said why.

"What's your name?" asked Jason. He was also slightly bewitched at the presence of this part Veela.

"Victoire." she said curtly.

"Well, I'd just like to say thank you for coming to let us know." Jason said sweetly.

"Your welcome." Victoire said with a slight smile and she walked off.

"You know you've gone as red as her hair." Scorpius said slightly amused.

"It's not my fault. I mean look at her!" Scorpius nodded. It had been hard to take his eyes off her.

"Veela blood." Scorpius replied. "Anyway we'd better get changed."

We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately. boomed a voice midway through changing. This caused the boys to hurry up somewhat. Scorpius felt excitement creep all over him though, now that they were so close. He was going to finally have his chance to shine.

As they disembarked from the train, a low voice cried out "Firs years over here! Come over t' me." Scorpius laid eyes on the source of this voice to a very large man with a very hairy face. From old newspapers and books, Scorpius knew who he was instantly. Rubius Hagrid. His father had also had nothing good to say about him either. But Scorpius also realised that his father in general never had many good things to say about those who had opposed Voldemort in his return to power, which slightly disturbed him, as it had been clear as day that Voldemort was pure evil. Of course it was prudent that he kept such thoughts to himself as he knew that his whole family had supported Voldermort until just before the very end of the Battle of Hogwarts. Yes, there were a great deal of things he knew, even in his young age that Scorpius Malfoy kept to himself and it had always done him good.

Jason and Scorpius walked over to where the rest of the first years were and began to follow. Scorpius was silently taking in everything and everyone, observing. He noted that there were two children from the Weasley-Potter clan. Jason however was anything but silent. He was talking animately with anyone and everyone around him, though he didn't leave Scorpius's side. Scorpius felt grateful for this, whilst he had been a loner for the most of his life and was used to it he still did desire friends. Jason was talking to a girl with dark long hair and brown eyes. Her hair seemed to be very well taken care, with a bang coming down the front of her shoulders on each side. She was definitely very pretty and she even looked slightly older than most of the girls. She stared back after a bit and Scorpius flushed, he realised he had been looking at her for entirely too long.

"So does your friend talk?" she asked Jason, still looking at Scorpius.

"Occasionally, real quiet one he is." Jason replied for him

"What's your name them?" she said.

"Scorpius." Scorpius replied simply. The girl gave him a once over.

"Nice to meet you Scorpius, I'm Alice Stockwood." and she gave him a light smile. "Just a guess, but are you a Malfoy, you do have an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Malfoy."

"He is my father. But how do you know him?" Scorpius asked, curious.

"Oh my mother works with him in the Ministry of Magic. I've seen him about a few times." she answered simply.

"Interesting." Scorpius said again. The more he found out, the less he knew was the thought on his mind.

"Mind you, Alice, everything is interesting to this one." Jason said with a bit of cheek in his voice. Scorpius chuckled in response. "Wow, so you CAN laugh! I was beginning to worry." The two of them descended into more giggles. As they walked at the back of the long line they heard gasps coming from in front. They rounded a corner and then both Alice and Jason who had been talking fell silent. It was Hogwarts. There was the lake, calm and quiet, and dark as night. In it was reflected the towers of Hogwarts. A vast castle full of towers and turrets on top of a mountain.

"C'mon you three, into a boat!" Hagrid shouted at them. They quickly jumped in and then the boat, began gliding forward.

"It's bigger than I thought." said Alice who still seemed slightly in awe of just the size. Scorpius nodded. It was huge.

"So who lives in the towers?" asked Jason.

"Gryffindor, Ravenclaw." Scorpius answered. He'd learned a lot from Hogwarts, A History.

"Wow, I see what you mean about him being quiet." Alice joked. She was teasing him, but it was in such a relaxed manner that he couldn't help but smile. If this was what having friends was like, he wanted more.

"Well, he may be quiet but he's wicked with magic." Scorpius went a bit red at such praise. Though he also knew it was true, he was a lot better at spells than most his age and there was no shame in it. Alice perked up when she heard this.

"Oh, really? I haven't really tried any. Anyway want to show us a spell?" she asked curious. It was weird though, she suddenly had a very polite, calm voice and a very charming smile. He put it out of his mind and took out his wand.

"Luminous Solaris!" he bellowed. The end of his wand went extremely bright, so bright he had to quickly look away and turn it off. There were shouts heard as other students looked towards the source of such a bright light.

"Wow!" Alice said, clearly amazed what he had done.

"Told you so!" said Jason. "So what spell was that?"

"Oh just a simple one that imitates sunlight."

"Where did you learn all of these spells?" asked Alice.

"Books mainly. I read a lot." he answered.

"I guess you're going to end up in Ravenclaw then." she said "Personally though, I would rather be in Slytherin don't you think, most of the great wizards and witches have been from there."

"Well actually his whole family has been in Slytherin."

"Oh really, hopefully we can be in the same house then." she said with a large smile. Scorpius smiled back though he felt a little uneasy at how she was treating him.

By this time they had reached the end of the lake and had gone under into some kind of tunnel that carried them right below the castle, where they disembarked and clambered out onto the rocks and pebbles. They clambered up a passageway that had been cared in the rock following the rest of the students, which brought them out into the grass in the shadow of the castle. Alice and Jason who had been talking animatedly about the different houses but when they entered through the main gate they fell silent.

The door opened and inside was a tallish brown haired man with a soft looking face.

"Here they are Longbo'um."

"Thanks Hagrid." he said quietly before calling out "All first years follow me please!" and so they did. The entry hall was vast and stoned walled. It was lit with torches and there was a huge marble staircase that was further ahead. They could hear muffled talking from what Scorpius assumed was the great hall. The whole group walked in silence most of them seemed somewhat in awe, most were definitely nervous. They were led to a small empty chamber past the voices. They all crowded in and watched Proffesor Longbottom.

"It is my pleasure to welcome you to Hogwarts. There will be a feast in the Great Hall soon, but before this, we must sort you into your houses. The Sorting as we call it is highly important as some of you may know. Your house will become your family when you are here, you will eat, sleep and have classes with them. You'll spend your free time with them in your common room. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has a great history, full of great witches as wizards."

"Here at Hogwarts we reward triumphs and punish rule breaking. There are house points awarded for triumphs and points lost for rule breaking and at the end of the year the house with the most points will win the house cup, which is considered a great honour."

"We will begin The Sorting Ceremony in a minute, in front of the whole school so please take a minute to compose yourselves." At this point there was a rustling as Alice took out a mirror to quickly look at herself and she straightened her robes. Jason watched her and let out a small chuckle.

"One should always look there best!" she whispered to him furiously.

"Alright form up in single file please!" Proffesor Longbottom called out. They did so and were marched into the great hall. Scorpius stared up in awe at the ceiling of the hall which looked just like the starry night sky that they had been under. There were candles hovering in the air lighting the place. Five tables were present in the room, four in long lines that stretched nearly across the whole hall, and at the front was a shorter table, slightly higher overlooking the rest, obviously the teachers table. They were lined up between the teachers table and the students table, facing the students, who were looking straight back at them. A stool was placed in front of them and then the sorting hat was placed. It was looked very tattered and was even slightly burned in some places. Everyone in the hall went silent as the hat began to twitch, and then it suddenly burst into song:

Oh, you may not think I m pretty,  
>But don t judge on what you see,<br>I ll eat myself if you can find A smarter hat than me.  
>You can keep your bowlers black,<br>Your top hats sleek and tall,  
>For I m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat And I can cap them all.<br>There s nothing hidden in your head The Sorting Hat can t see,  
>So try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be.<br>You might belong in Gryffindor,  
>Where dwell the brave at heart,<br>Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart;  
>You might belong in Hufflepuff,<br>Where they are just and loyal,  
>Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil;<br>Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
>if you ve a ready mind,<br>Where those of wit and learning,  
>Will always find their kind;<br>Or perhaps in Slytherin You ll make your real friends,  
>Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends.<br>So put me on! Don t be afraid!  
>And don t get in a flap!<br>You re in safe hands (though I have none)  
>For I m a Thinking Cap!<p>

The hall was filled with applause when the song finished. It somehow bowed to each of the tables. For the first time in this whole journey, Scorpius felt somewhat nervous at which house he would end up in.

"When I call you name you will come forward, sit on the stool, put on the hat and be sorted into your house." Proffessor Longbottom said with a

"Adams, Nick!" called out Proffessor Longbottom. A smallish boy with dirty blonde hair came up and sat on the the chair. He put the hat on which covered his eyes.

"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat. The table second from the left errupted with applause and he walked over to sit with the Ravenclaw table, where people shook his hand.

"Boot, Thomson!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" this time it was the table on the right that clapped.

"Bryson, Pippa!"  
>"GRYFFINDOR!" The table on the far left was now full of applause.<p>

"Cratchet, Mary!" became a Slytherin.

"Dressen, Jason!" Scorpius watched intently as his new friend walked up and sat on the stool. The hat hardly touched his head before he it cried out.

"SLYTHERIN!" Scorpius was a little shocked at this. He privately had been expecting Jason to be in Hufflepuff but apparently the sorting hat thought otherwise. And so the naming continued.

"Malfoy, Scorpius!" He walked up, his heart pounding as all eyes were on him. The Slytherin's seemed to be looking at him intently, almost as if they all expected him in there. However there were whispers across the hall. He could pick out the odd words such as death eater, father, Voldemort. He simply closed his mind to them and walked up to the stool sat and placed the hat on his head. A small voice spoke to him.

"Interesting, very interesting. I've placed many Malfoy's over the years, all in Slytherin, but none as difficult as you. Determination and ambition in large amounts. But no mistaking the sharp mind and a thirst for knowledge either... very difficult." The hat fell silent for a minute. Scorpius too pondered where he would rather be, he was sure he'd be fine in either "Oh, that is interesting indeed!" "SLYTHERIN!" This was followed by a cheer from the table of Slytherins who were on the far right. He as he went to sit down there were whispers behind his back he heard the word death eater crop up more than once, but he decided to ignore them. He arrived at the Slytherin table where he was warmly welcomed by a tall brown haired boy. He sat in between Jason and another boy, Dexter Kraft, who had sandy blonde hair.

"Nice to see you here with me!"

"Potter, Albus." Suddenly the whole room fell quite and eyes fell on the younger son of the Boy Who Lived. The hat was obviously taking a long time to sort him. A minute went by, then three, then five. By now even the teachers were watching looking extremely curious. After a full seven minutes the cry came out.

"SLYTHERIN!" The whole table of Gryffindor gasped as the Slytherin table cheered. The red haired boy with green eyes walked over looking completely shell shocked. He sat down still in a daze as the elder boys slapped him on the back and congratulated him.

"Cheer up Albus!" said Jason heartily. Scorpius had been very sure that the whole Potter-Weasley clan would be in Gryffindor as the rest of the hall seemed to expect. In fact just a glance at the Gryffindor table showed that the clan dominated it, with the tell-tale red hair dotted all over the table. Scorpius had nothing against them, after all his father had told him that he owed his life to Harry Potter.

"How can I, my cousins are going to kill me." he sighed.

"What did the hat tell you?" asked Scorpius now very curious.

"Well, itwas admant that I should be here. But..." and then he lowered his voice "I said I wanted to be in Gryffindor." Scorpius nodded knowing he was referring to Voldemort. "But the hat insisted that I would fit in here a lot better."

"Well, don't mind your brother and your cousins, you should just be where you would be best at." said Jason with a smile.

"Stockwood, Alice."

"SLYTHERIN!" Scorpius watched as Alice made her way over to the table, a big smile plastered on her face. She sat next to Albus and opposite him and Jason.

"Well hello again you two!" she said brightly. "And wow, the son of Harry Potter himself!" She gave him a look up and down before sticking her hand out. "Alice Stockwood, pleasure to meet you." she said with a big grin.

"Albus Serverus Potter." he shook her hand blushing slightly. Scorpius perked up now, Albus Serverus. It seemed too unlikely to be a coincidence, so he had to know.

"Were you named after the two previous headmasters by any chance?" he asked Albus. Albus went red and nodded.

"How did you know?" asked Jason.

"Oh just a guess really." Scorpius replied. It hadn't been, he'd read a lot about both. Severus Snape had been the wizarding world s greatest spy. He had managed to play the role of double agent right under the nose of Voldemort himself. But from what his father had said about Snape in the old days, it was clear that he detested Potter so he found this very weird and he made a mental note to look into this.

"Weasley, Rose."

"GRYFFINDOR!" Albus sighed.

"I'm now the only one in my family to ever be put in Slytherin. Though, Dad was nearly in there too."

"Interesting." Scorpius replied.

"Again, with your bloody interesting! What isn't interesting to you?" Jason said. This promptly led to Jason and Alice descending into a fit of giggles.

"I was nearly sorted into Ravenclaw." Scorpius said quietly. Albus seemed to be put a little more at ease at this statement.

"Zabini, Nicola."

"Slytherin!" Nicola was a tanned girl with a pretty face. She walked over to the slytherin table loftily and sat down without so much as a glance at anyone else.

"Anyway Albus, a lot of the best wizards have been in here you know. Determination and cunning are hardly bad traits to possess you know." Alice said brightly. Suddenly out of nowhere a large amount of food appeared on the table. And they began to tuck into their food happily enough. Jason spent the majority of the telling jokes. Albus had joined in telling stories of the pranks he had pulled with his older brother James. Alice and another girl who had been sorted into the house, Lizzie Trennan, had proceeded to talk to each other animatedly about hair potions.

At the end of the meal, Proffessor McGonnagal who was the headmistress addressed them with a few wise words. And then one of the prefects for Slytherin, Arturo Zabini (who was the elder brother of Nicola Zabini) lead them down to the dungeons whilst telling them a bit about Slytherin. S Eventually they reached their quarters which was guarded by a stonewall, it opened to the password 'Salazar'. The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them. Several of the Slytherins were already in the room sitting around the fire in high backend chairs. The atmosphere was calm enough, light chatter and laughter could be heard throughout.

The boys were shown to their quarters. Each of them had a bed with silver curtains and the room was lit by more green fire. Their luggage had arrived before them and each had their trunk placed in front of their bed.

Albus flopped on his bed and yawned. This followed with Scorpius yawning too. Jason threw a pair of socks at Albus.

"You ass, you're yawning is going to set everyone else off!" this caused the room to descend into a fit of giggles. As the other boys began to unpack Scorpius simply waved his wand at his luggage and watched as everything fell into place.

"Got enough books?" called out Dexter when he saw the stacks of books that Scorpius had placed by his bed.

"Just like my cousin and her mother, he is. They spend their entire lives pouring over books." Albus chirped in amused. "I suppose you've read all the course textbooks already too, right?"

"As a matter of fact I did so a year ago." he replied with a degree of pride and arrogance lacing his voice. "As for your Aunt, I intend to surpass every single record of hers." Albus stared back with an unreadable face but said nothing else. Scorpius shrugged and took out his wand deciding now was as good as time as any to practice his spell casting.

"Incendio." He stated. A red flame lept out from his wand. He focused on changing it into different shapes. The rest of the room had gone quiet and all eyes were on him. He pretended not to notice them whilst proceeding to show off, performing more and more complex tricks. "And that's why I read books." he finished with a bright smile. Scorpius felt a little tired after all the commotion. He picked up a textbook on potions and began reading whilst lying on his bed as the other boys began talking and unpacking noisily.

"So Albus, you going to try out for the quidditch team?" Dexter asked. "You know, after your dad being the youngest seeker and all."

"Yeah I'm going to try for seeker, though my family are going to go mental if I get in. We've spent years practicing and now I won't be playing for them." Albus replied. "Anyone else planning on trying out?"

"Chaser." Scorpius replied causing everyone to look round to him.

"Aren't we all a bit small for that?" Albus asked, looking skeptical. Scorpius scoffed at the idea.

"Maybe in Gryffindor, all brawn no brain." Scorpius scoffed. Albus frowned a little at his view of Gryffindor. "If you are small you can duck out of tackles easier and dodge bludgers." Scorpius continued on, stating it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. He then turned back to his potion book and continued to read it.

"Well I plan to start a bookies for quidditch here." Jason stated.

"What's that?" asked Dexter. Scorpius looked up too.

"M'dad taught me to do it with football. You basically track every player, make predictions and then let people bet to make money." Jason explained. Scorpius was impressed, it sounded a lot like arithmancy.

"Could you teach me? Sounds interesting." Scorpius asked.

"Sure, we can do it together if you want. You'd probably be better at it than me." Jason replied and then he yawned. "Anyway, I'm knackered, going to bed, see you all tomorrow." he said, closing his curtains

* * *

><p>So I wanted to craft a story about three boys who grow to be good friends with ambitious plans. I've got a very good idea of just how I want this story to go so I'm quite looking forward to putting it all down. Of course some of you are wondering why I haven't demonised the Slytherin house. Well that's simple. I've never seen it as the house that was bad, I've always felt that JKR was a bit harsh on them seeing as the traits required to be in slytherin aren't evil themselves. And yes, I did place my Albus in the right house, he's a very good fit for slytherin even though he has some gryffindor traits too. As for Draco Malfoy, I've always assumed that after everything that had happened to him he would have been forced to take a really long hard look at his life and everything he had believed in and that he would have had a change of heart to a lot of things. If you are worried about Scorpius being a Gary Stu, don't worry, he most definitely is not he has many flaws and over time you will really learn to understand them. I've tried to craft deep characters so there is much room for character development and the likes. Anyway, <strong>read and review<strong> people. Even if it is just** three words** say something as reviews are like the only thanks anyone gets here and they warm my soul and encourage me to write more.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter

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><p>Albus Severus Potter, lay in bed unable to sleep. His alarm clock read 6am. Had he been above ground there would have been sunlight to greet him, but his present position was in the dungeons of Hogwarts. He was a Slytherin. It had been his worst fear for the last 3 months of his life, with his older brother James making fun that he would end up here but he had. The moment when he had willingly accepted entering Slytherin came to his mind easily.<p>

_"Ambition and determination are nothing to be ashamed of you know. You are full of both, more than your father and Slytherin will help you to achieve those goals!" came the voice of the Sorting Hat._

_"But every bad wizard came from there." Albus replied desperately. He didn't want to be in Slytherin, he didn't want to be in the house that had been responsible for Vordermort and his Death Eaters._

_"It is not the house itself that is evil. Many great wizards have come from the House of Slytherin and dark wizards have come from the House of Gryffindor. No house is by nature good or evil."_

_"Really?" Albus said still disbelieving. And then he remembered what his father had said about Severus Snape._

_"Yes, even Godric Gryffindor himself was no saint. Champion of Muggleborns maybe but he was no Helga Hufflepuff." Albus was quiet at the thought of this. Things had always seemed simple to him. Gryffindor is good, Slytherin is Evil. But apparently this wasn't the case._

_"Well, if that's the case and I really do fit, then I guess I'd better join -"_

_"SLYTHERIN!" Albus looked at the Gryffindor table, he saw the shock on their faces. As he walked over he felt particular guilt when he looked at the downtrodden face of his brother. But there was nothing he could do, the Sorting Hat had been so insistent, that he was a Slytherin._

"No use dwelling on it now." he muttered sadly. He decided he would write to his parents and see what they had to say about it.

_Dear Dad & Mum _

_Well it happened. I'm in Slytherin. I asked the Sorting Hat to put me into Gryffindor and we almost argued for a while but it placed me in there. I'm in a room with three other boys. One of them is Scorpius Malfoy, he told me that the Sorting Hat nearly put him into Ravenclaw. He kind of reminds me of Aunt Hermione cause all he does is practice spells and read books it seems he's quite quiet too. There is another boy, Jason Dressen, he seems really friendly actually, I would have thought he would be the type to go into Hufflepuff really but apparently not. There's another boy Dexter, he's been pretty quiet too though. Anyway I'll write again when I have more to say, the others will be up soon (It's six o'clock in the morning)._

_Love Albus Potter_

Albus neatly folded the letter and made his way to the Owlry. He couldn't help but marvel at the size of Hogwarts as he walked around the corridors. Each corridor dawned with lavish decorations. When he finally reached the Owlry he held out his hand and a white Owl flew onto it.

"Here you go Snowey, take that to Dad will you." he said, whilst tieing the letter to his leg. He left and wandered into the great hall where he saw his brother and his two cousins eating. He walked over and sat down.

"Told you you'd be in Slytherin!" James said, looking quite pleased with himself.

"There's nothing wrong with being a Slytherin!" Albus said heatedly, feeling quite embarrased.

"Well you are the first of the whole entire family to be sorted into Slytherin you know." Rose Weasley piped up with a matter-of-fact like voice.

"What are they like anyway? Bet that Malfoy boy is a snivelling cowardly fool just like his father. Death eater spawn." came James voice, he spat out the word death eater like it was the most disgusting thing in the world.

"Actually, he's a lot like you," Albus replied looking at Rose. "Brought a miniature library with him, he's also really good at spells and really quiet."

"Then what Merlin's name is he doing in Slytherin?" Fred Weasley exclaimed as he sat down on the table with his cousins.

"Well he says that he was nearly put in Ravenclaw."

"Anyway, you'd do well to stay away from those Slytherin lot, never any good they are. Especially that Malfoy boy, he father and grandfather were death eaters, he's probably no better!" said James.

"I'm one of those 'lot'." Albus replied coldy. He felt annoyed, he just didn't see what the big fuss was about Slytherin now he was in it. So without another word, he picked up his plate and walked over to the Slytherin dining table and sat beside the very boy who had been in question. Scorpius had a book open in one hand and his fork shoveling food into his mouth in the other.

"Morning." Scorpius uttered, simply acknowledging his presence before going back to his food.

"Hey Albus. So what were the Gryffindors saying then?" asked Jason, saying the word Gryffindor with a slight sneer.

"They were just wondering how I ended up in Slytherin and asking about you guys."

"Which of us?" said Scorpius, his eyes now fixed on Albus. Albus looked away.

"Well, urm, you." Scorpius frowned.

"They said?" Scorpius asked again, his eyes trained on Albus' face. Albus felt uncomfortable.

"Doesn't really matter." Scorpius glanced over at the Gryffindor table, looked back at Albus and nodded.

"So what lesson we got first then?" Jason asked with a smile. Scorpius pulled out his timetable and had a look.

"Potions, Slughorn, dungeons." came Scorpius's reply.

"You know, you have a real talent for using as few words as possible." Jason replied with a small chuckle.

"Personally, I find that a rather endearing trait of his." came the sweet voice of Alice Stockwood who sat down daintily. She was followed by Nicola who strangely seemed to glide rather than walk.

"So do any of you know what Professor Slughorn is like?" asked Dexter as he sat down on the table table.

"Rather nice actually, actually... well as long as you've got connections." piped in a second year. Scorpius sighed.

"What's up?" asked Alice who noticed how Scorpius' face fell.

"Doesn't matter." came his curt reply. "Anyway, off to the library." he stood up and left without another word.

"He really doesn't like talking, does he?" said Jason, causing the rest of the Slytherin first years to laugh.

"So Albus, you know when the quidditch trials are?" asked Dexter.

"Boys and quidditch." sighed Alice. "I'm off back to the dungeons. I'll see you guys at potions." she said airily as she stood up from the bench and left. She looked back at the boys and gave them a smile before walking off.

"She seems nice." said Dexter.

"I dunno, there's something about the way she acts that's a bit..." Albus's voice trailed off. The words came to his mouth before he'd even thought about it. But he wasn't sure he liked all her little giggles and smiles that seemed to be directed his way.

"Anyway Al, do you mind if I call you Al?" Jason asked, Albus shook his head and Jason continued. "I saw that firebolt of yours. Old model, but still a lot better than most other brooms. How'd you get it, there weren't many built." Jason asked.

"Was my dad's. He got it as a present from Sirius Black. Won quite a few matches with it too. James wanted it but he got one of those Nimbus 5000s instead."

"Really, those are quite expensive?" Dexter piped in.

"I know, but we aren't really short of money." Albus flushed feeling embarrassed. That was an understatement. The Potter-Weasley family were currently very well off, his Dad was head Auror, his Uncle Ron was deputy and also owned 50% of Weasleys Wizardly Weases. "Anyway, I'd rather have the firebolt." he neglected to say that the reason he wanted the firebolt was out of pride. His father had used it to win many matches as a seeker and he planned to do exactly the same thing.

"Good luck with the tryouts. I hope both you and Scorpius get in, it's rare for two first years to be in a team." said Jason cheerily. "Anyway lets get to potions."

-x-y-z-

"Come in! Come in!" came a loud cheerful voice. The source was an old, overweight man who had a large grin on his face. Professor Slughorn, the Slytherin housemaster. Albus entered the room with the rest of the Slytherins and Gryffindors. It was a large room in the dungeons, lit with torches. All over there were shelves with weird looking liquids in all sorts of oddly shaped flasks. Malfoy, Jason and Dexter were already sitting on a table so he went to join them. On the table next to him, his cousin, Rose was seated with a blonde haired girl, Cassie Wood and one boy, Ryan Thomas (who he'd met him once before briefly as Ryan's dad was friends with his.)

"Welcome to Potions!" boomed Proffessor Slughorn's voice. "Here I will teach you the precise art of brewing potions. With potions one can heal the gravest of wounds, bewitch minds, even control the senses."

The whole class was focused on him most looking rather interested. Well all but one. Albus glanced at Scorpius who looked thoroughly bored.

"Right, who can tell me what you get from stewing horned slugs, with dried nettles, crushed snake fangs and porcupine quills?" Slughorn asked. Immediately Rose Weasley's hand shot up in the air.

"Your name?"

"Rose Weasley sir."

"Hermione and Ron's daughter I'm guessing?"

"Yes sir."

"Anyway, the answer."

"Brisbane's simple boil cure potion, Sir. It can be used to cure all manner of boils and warts."

"Very good, just like your mother. 10 points to Gryffindor!" Slughorn said in good spirit. Albus rolled his eyes at this. Rose wasn't just like her mother, she was almost exactly the same. Jason whispered something to Scorpius causing his shoulders to shake a little at this point.

"Right if you'll take out your cauldrons and get into pairs, we'll be brewing exactly this boil cure today. There will be 20 points awarded to the house of the person with the best potion. At this point the class descended into light chatter as they paired off.

"Scorpius, you'll work with me right?" came Alice's voice from the table behind, she gave him a bright smile.

"Actually we'd already decided to work together." Jason replied with a smirk on his face. It was obvious why they both wanted Scorpius.

"What about you then Albus?" she turned to Albus and smiled.

"Sure." the words came to his lips before he had even thought about it. Dexter went to go work with Mary who had also been sitting on the table with Alice. Nicola wordlessly sat by Cassie Wood

"So, Albus, you any good with potions?" Alice asked.

"Never tried."

"Me either." she said and started giggling. "Anyway, I guess we should get started, I'm sure we can help each other out." she said with another smile.

For the next hour and a half there was light chatter in the class as people struggled on with their potions. Albus and Alice's potion was definitely not right, it was smoking black and smelled like charcoal. They weren't the only ones though. Dexter and Mary's solution was turning as solid as cement. However Rose Weasley and Ryan Thomas seemed to be getting along fine. As for Scorpius and Jason; Scorpius had his wand out and his cauldron was stirring itself whilst other ingredients were adding themselves to the cauldron. Whilst doing all this he was idly listening to Jason chattering.

"Right, if you'll stop there everyone, take a small vial of your potion and bring it to the front." called out Slughorn. Albus dipped his vial into the solution and pulled out his solution and went to hand it to Slughorn.

"Not bad," said Slughorn looking at his vial. He then took a look at Rose's vial.

"My dear girl, this is nearly perfect. 10 points to Gryffindor. Just like your mother you are." said Slughorn said brightly. Rose looked positively happy at this and walked off with a bounce. However Malfoy went up next to hand in his potion. He, oddly had a large smirk on his face. Slughorn took a good long look at his vial.

"Wow... this is amazing. I couldn't have brewed a better potion myself!" he looked up at Malfoy. "Judging by your blond hair and chin, you must be Scorpius Malfoy right?" Scorpius nodded. "Well, I'm most impressed, 20 points to Slytherin!" Malfoy smirk increased in size. Rose turned back to give him a look of pure indignation an loathing, to which he simply gave a small chuckle and gave the know-it-all a taunting look. She then packed her books and stormed off. Malfoy however strutted over to the table, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

"You see that? The look on that arrogant Weasley's face when Scorp here brewed the better potion." Jason said animatedly.

"Scorpius is excellent!" Alice said sweetly. Scorpius blushed a little.

"She's going to have it in for you now, Scorpius. She hates not being first. And even worse, her dad told her to beat you at everything." Albus said. Scorpius frowned at that news.

"Well I think Scorpius will hold his own." came Jason's voice.

"Well she deserved to come second anyway. Did you see the way she was desperate to answer all those questions, total know-it-all." Dexter said.

"Hey that's my cousin," Albus replied heatedly. Though he knew even in his family people said the same thing.

"Well, it is kind of true you know? And we're your family too now." Jason replied. Albus had to agree on both points. After all his was going to spend the majority of the next seven years living with the people he was currently talking to. He had to admit, so far, Slytherin had been much better than he thought it would be.

"Anyway, what we got next?" asked Mary.

"Herbology, Hufflepuff, Longbottom." Scorpius piped in. Jason rolled his eyes causing everyone else to laugh, even Scorpius let out a small chuckle.

-x-y-z-

Herbology had been fairly uneventful until the end when Albus had awkwardly delivered the message his mom had left for him. The professor also expressed his regret that he didn't have him in Gryffindor with him. Next up was Defense Against The Dark Arts with Professor Ryan Ridgeway.

"Right come in and sit down." came his voice, it was quiet but projected an aura of command. He was a tall dark haired man with a thin build. "Books away please, we'll be doing simple wand work today." Everyone silently put there books on the floor.

"In this class, I will be teaching you how to arm yourself against things in the world that might seek to attack you. I believe in a practical approach so all theory will be left to homework. But here... here you will learn by manner of dueling." at the mention of dueling the whole class burst into quiet excited chatter. Ridgeway raised his wand and with a swish all the tables and chairs moved to the sides of the room creating space in the middle.

"Right, who hear knows the procedure for a duel?" Rose Weasley's hand went up instantly. "Your name?"

"Rose, Sir, Rose Weasley."

"Right Rose, go stand in the middle then. Anyone else?"

"Surely you know how, you've read books about it right." Jason whispered to Scorpius. Scorpius nodded. Jason then pushed Scorpius forward resulting in him being in front as a volunteer.

"Your name?" Ridgeway asked

"Scorpius Malfoy."

Whispers went up in the room from the Gryffindor side as people. Albus could clearly hear the words death eater and dark arts come up more than once. He saw a look of anger quickly flick through Scorpius' face and then it passed. He watched as Scorpius and Rose took their positions. Albus felt unsure as to who to root for. Rose was his best friend after all, she always had been, but who couldn't be seen cheering for a gryffindor now, not against a slytherin. He watched as the two of them walked back facing each other. Rose's face focused Malfoy looking calm.

"Bow and then disarm only."

The suspense was high in the class, so silent one could have heard a pin drop. The two of them bowed and then;

"EXPELLIARMUS!" shouted Rose as she flicked her wand. However Scorpius had jumped out the way before the curse could hit him.

"IMPEDIMENTA!" shouted Scorpius with a flick of his wand. The jinx hit Rose's legs causing her to fall to the ground. "Finite Incantatem." he said afterwards removing the jinx.

There were laughs abound from the Slytherin house. Even Nicola, who he hadn't seen speak was laughing at Rose. Rose stood up though looking thoroughly annoyed. Her face was red and contorted in raw anger. Albus sighed. This was not going to go well, he knew his cousin was just as hot heated and stubborn as her parents, maybe even more so.

"Stupefy!" she shouted. The curse hit Malfoy in the chest and he was thrown against the ground. There were cheers from the Gryffindor crowd.

"Take that death eater spawn." someone called out loudly. Albus watched as Scorpius' eyes narrowed into slits and his face contorted with anger for a second before it passed away.

"I said disarm only!" came Ridgeway's voice. "Ten points will be deducted from gryffindor."

"Sorry sir." Rose apologized.

"Again!" came Malfoy's voice, it was sharp and piercing.

"Go on then."

"Expllia-"

"Protegro!" shouted Malfoy. The shield errected stopping Weasley mid spell.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he called out quickly. This froze Rose in place completely. "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy said afterwards. Rose's wand flying out of her hand. This was greeted with cheers from Jason, Alice and Dexter. Albus held his tongue. He definitely felt that Rose had been out of order as far as stunning Scorpius went, even if she had been ridiculed by his house. But at the same time Rose was his best friend. It was an awkward position to be in and he didn't like it.

"Finite Incantatem." Ridgeback uttered, his wand pointed at Rose. "Great demonstration Scorpius, 10 points to Slytherin."

Rose, who was able to move again, meekly walked back to where the Gryffindors were standing. Scorpius walked back to Jason and Albus a wide smile on his face.

"Wow, you totally humiliated her." Jason said brightly. "Glad I pushed you forward."

"You're really in for it now." Albus sighed. "She's never going to forget this. She can hold a grudge for years."

"Don't care." Scorpius simply replied. He looked utterly un-phased. Albus looked over to the other side of the room and his eyes met with Rose. She gave him a questioning look and he shrugged. He couldn't side with her, she'd started it.

"So I hope you all learned something from that excellent demonstration.

Now, could you all please get into pairs. You are going to take it in turns to learn to disarm each other with the spell Expelliarmus. I'll be walking around helping you."

Albus saw this as as good a time as any to talk to Rose. So he walked over to the Gryffindor lot, amist some of the looks he was getting from the room.

"Partner up with me, Rose?" he asked.

"Sure." she replied warmly.

"So, why did you do it?" he asked. He was curious what had caused Rose to completely disregard the rules and stun Malfoy.

"He broke the rules, he didn't try and disarm. Anyway, he's an arrogant toerag, haven't you heard what my Dad and yours said about his father." she replied, as if it made perfect sense.

"You sure it's not just because he's better at potions than you?" Albus asked raising a knowing eyebrow.

"He probably just got lucky, you'll see I'll beat him in everything else like Dad told me to!" she whispered back. Albus shrugged. It was just like Rose to be goaded into finding someone to compete with, he was just glad it wasn't him this time around. She had a habit of taking these sorts of things to the level of obsession. "Anyway, lets get on with the lesson!" she stated with a bit more vigour. Albus rolled his eyes.

The two of them practiced disarming each other. Rose managed to remove his wand every time without fail, Albus however took 3 tries before he could get the spell to work properly for him. He knew that it was his father's favourite spell. Well not just him, everyone knew that that was the spell that had ended Voldemort. After a while he grew bored and decided to strike up a conversation with Rose again.

"So what are the people like in Gryffindor then?" Albus whispered when he went over to Rose to collect his wand.

"Oh they are really nice. Though they kept on asking questions about mum and dad. How are they anyway, probably all dreadful, the lot of them."

"Oi, I'm in Slytherin too." he replied heatedly.

"Yes, but you're not like them."

"Them?" he asked. "What do you know about them. You've not spoken to anyone in my house." he felt irritated. Everyone seemed to have this terrible view of Slytherin. Even he had been duped into thinking that it was bad, but since he had arrived nobody had treated him badly. Even worse, he saw the look that graced Scorpius' face every time someone mentioned the word death eater. It wasn't right.

"I've read about them, almost every dark wizard has come from Slytherin. Almost all the death eaters were in there too. It's not a coincidence!" Rose replied.

"So are you saying that I'm going to become a death eater?" he asked sarcastically.

"No..." Rose replied. Her face flickered with uncertainty as if she was unsure what to say next.

"Good. Now as my best friend. I would really appreciate it if you were nicer about my house." Albus asked with a smile.

"Okay, I'm sorry." she said with a smile. "Now can we get back to the lesson?" Albus rolled his eyes again. He wasn't at all surprised to find that she wanted to spend as much time as possible focusing on lessons. "Oh and don't forget, James, you and I are meant to go down to Hagrid's this evening for tea."

"I'll be there." Albus replied and then he remembered his brother. "Warn James that if he makes one statement about which house I'm in I'll hex him." he said as an afterthought. He was slightly dreading how James was going to treat him now. The two of them had always been close, but James had always gone on about how the Slytherins had done X, Y and Z, and what pranks he and Fred played on them. He didn't want to be painted with the same brush.

The rest of the lesson passed without much strife. Rose had insisted on spending more time working and disarming him than talking, despite the fact that she seemed to have mastered his Dad's spell perfectly well.

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

"Hey, they posted the quidditch tryout date." came an excited voice.

Albus turned to the entrance of his dorm to see Jason walking excitedly. Scorpius and him had been in the room quietly getting on with their homework assignments.

"When?" Scorpius and Albus asked at the same time causing Jason to laugh.

"Wow, you two are really eager. And it's on Saturday, so you two had better get some practice in." Jason replied.

"How about now?" Scorpius asked looking at Albus. Albus was surprised, he and Scorpius hadn't really talked much, yet here was Scorpius asking whether he wanted to practice quidditch together. He felt bad that he was going to have to let him down.

"Sorry, but I have to go to Hagrid's hut with Rose and James." Albus replies remorsefully.

"Oh." says Scorpius, his face fell a little before resuming its normal state.

"Tell you what, how about we wake up early tomorrow and practice." Albus suggests feeling guilty.

"Fine." Scorpius replied.

"Hey, I'm coming too, you need someone to keep right?" said Jason excitedly.

"I think we took that for granted." Albus replied his face breaking into a smile. Scorpius let out a long laugh that seemed so very unlike him, causing the other two to look at him.

"What, it was funny." he huffed indignantly. Albus had to admit it was.

"Right, I've got to go see Hagrid. I'll see you two later."

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

Albus stood around at one of the exits to the castle. He was calmly waiting when he heard a voice call out.

"Tarantallegra!" shouted the voice. Suddenly Albus lost complete control of his feet and they started moving around with no control of his legs. He knew it was his brother James. As if on cue, his older brother appeared, in a fit of laughter. Albus tried to focus on stopping his legs moving around but they wouldn't.

"Hey, stop this!" Albus cried out.

"Finite Incantatum!" came Rose's voice.

"Awww, Rose you're no fun! You're meant to be on my side!" James lamented.

"What do you mean by side?" Albus asked, though he was fairly sure he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Well, we are Gryffindors and you are a slimy Slytherin." James replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yes, I'm a Slytherin." Albus replied. He was swiftly growing tired of this, first Rose and now James.

"James, leave him alone, there's nothing wrong with Slytherin." Rose said pleadingly.

"Nothing wrong... nothing wrong with slytherin?" he replied bewildered. "Which house did Voldemort and his followers belong to? Even one of your roommates is the son of a death eater!"

Albus was rarely one to get very angry but at this point he felt anger surge through him. How could James even be considering comparing him to death eaters. Before he was even fully aware he launched himself at his brother.

"Protegro!" Rose cried out. A shield appeared between the two brothers knocking each other both onto the floor. "Will you two stop it! You're brothers!"

"Stop what? I didn't start it, he did!" Albus shouted.

"You were going to hit him!" Rose replied. She then whirled around to face James, her face fierce. "And you! Stop winding him up, I know you've been doing it all summer and it's horrid! If you bring up this Slytherin business again, I'll hex you!" She then removed the shield. "Now apoligise and hug like brothers." she demanded.

"What?" Albus and James asked at the same time.

"Do it!" She shouted. The two boys stood up and walked over to each other. "Now hug." They awkardly put their arms around each other.

"Mental she is." Al whispered.

"Just like her mother." James agreed.

"Right, now lets get to Hagrid's, we are late." Rose chimed in again.

"Alright miss bossy." James replied. Rose turned around and stared him down. "Okay, okay, going." James replied, holding his hands up as if surrendering.

* * *

><p>Ending it there cause I don't actually see the point in continuing any further. This chapter was meant to be the introduction chapter for Albus, so the next chapter will be for Jason. Story may seem a bit slow at the moment but I promise you it will pick up. I just want to make sure that I set up all the relationships right and let you guys get a feel for the characters and their personalities. Anyway, as always read and review people. Even it its just three words, say something, it gives me inspiration to write more.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own harry potter.

* * *

><p>Jason smacked his alarm clock, groaning. He didn't do mornings. He hated them. Even when he went to muggle primary school he had often been late due to waking up late.<p>

Muggle primary school. It had been an interesting time for him. He had enjoyed it immensely towards the end. After all he had been one of the most popular kids in school. He'd learned young that a bright smile, some compliments and talking about a persons favorite hobbies made them like you. And when people liked you, they did things for you. And then later in school he learned that making friends with the right people had even greater benefits. He had indirectly placed himself at the centre of his primary school. All the other 200 kids in his year had looked to him. And he even managed to make money off it on the side. The odd bets here and there, buying and selling things that people wanted. All together he had worked out that knowing the right people got you everywhere.

And now he was at Hogwarts. He was now a small fish in a huge pond (stealing a phrase from his muggle father). He was going to have to make pick friends all over again. In the two days that he had been at Hogwarts he was already beginning to pick up on just who would be worth making friends with. He saw it as even luckier that he had the luck to be in the house of one of the son of Harry Potter. But he felt even luckier. On the train he had bumped into a boy, who was talented and infamous. He could see all the whispers that followed him. Normally such a boy would be one to be avoided, he was usually the type that would lose you all your other friends in school if you decided to befriend him, but this was different. He didn't act like the weird kid that nobody wanted to make friends with. Aside from being a boy who used far too many words he seemed nice enough. And he was very intelligent, a most beneficial friend to have, all things considered.

Making friends with guys was easy, all you had to do was be into the same things and share some experiences together. So the day before he had slyly orchestrated the three of them practicing quidditch. From what he had seen in primary school with muggle football he understood that it would be a great way to quickly solidify a friendship with the other two, if they spent time playing quidditch together.

And that was why he was smacking his alarm clock cursing it in his head with words that would have led to being hexed by his mother. Jason rolled out of bed groaning, he rubbed his eyes and looked around. All the curtains were closed and light snoring could be heard from the other three beds. He walked over to Albus' bed and drew the curtains.

"Yo, Al, wake up." Jason said shaking Albus gently.

"Get lost James." Albus replied sleepily before rolling over.

"Albus, up!" he tried again, slightly louder. Albus groaned and covered his head with his pillow. Jason sighed. What he could really use at this moment in time was his two little sisters. At the ages of 3 and 7 both of them were absolute nightmares, loud annoying and brilliant at waking him up against his will. However seeing as they weren't here, he decided he'd just adopt their approach instead. He grabbed the covered and yanked the duvet off Albus. Albus opened his eyes, looked up and blinked a few times.

"What do you want?" Al rasped. "It's so early."

"We're meant to go practice." Jason replied, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. Al groaned, turned around and hugged his pillow in response.

"Oh for Merlin's sake." came another disgruntled voice. "Rennervate." Jason looked over to see Scorpius pointing his wand at Albus.

"Okay, okay, I'm awake." Albus said, his eyes now wide open. He sat up and looked around. "Why are we awake so early?" Jason sighed.

"For the millionth time, we are going to the quidditch pitch to practice!" he said.

"Oh yeah. Quidditch." he said, his face lighting up into a bright smile. Jason smiled back.

"Get changed." Scorpius called out, already changing into his robes. Jason rolled his eyes at Al and Albus laughed.

"What?" Scorpius asked, confused.

"If you used any fewer words, you'd be a mute." Jason replied smoothly.

"And if you used any more, you'd literally be a chatterbox." Albus replied. Scorpius descended into a fit of giggles over this, causing the two of them to look at him again. Scorpius simply shrugged this time.

"Would you three go away so I can sleep!" called out another voice from a bed with drawn curtains. It was Dexter. The volume level of their conversation had obviously risen to a level where it was waking people up.

"Sorry Dex." Jason called out. Others might have felt bad about not inviting Dexter but Jason didn't. It was simple, Dexter didn't seem like the kind of kid who would turn out to be cool. So Jason felt it totally unnecessary to expend any extra effort befriending him. It was a mean way of thinking, but Jason wasn't nice.

The three of them got dressed in silence to avoid keeping up Dexter any longer feeling bad. Albus was first to be ready, Jason noticed that he was really eager to go out and practice. Jason was inwardly happy at this, this sort of thing, male bonding, his dad called it, was always easier when you were taking an interest in someone's favourite interest. And clearly quidditch was Al's.

The three of them made their way out of the room and the common room.

"So, how long you two been playing quidditch then?" Jason asked.

"Well I had a real broomstick since I was seven." Al replied. "What about you Scorpius?"

"Same."

"Would it kill you to use more than one word in a sentence?" Jason asked.

"Literally or figuratively?" Scorpius asked.

"You read too many books." Al replied shaking his head with a smile. "You talk just like my aunt and my cousin. Always using words that nobody knows the meaning of."

"Which cousin is this?" Jason asked.

"Rose," he replied. "The one who Scorpius humiliated in DADA." Al sighed. "You know she's going to do everything possible to get you back. She's pretty good at holding grudges."

Scorpius shrugged looking unphased.

"You'll have to give us more than that." Jason said. "You destroyed her. Why?" Jason had noticed the flinches that came across Scorpius' face when people had been talking about him behind his back.

"I don't like to be second." he said quietly.

"Well I guess you just indirectly declared war on her then. Cause Rose also hates being second." Al replied.

"He'll be fine." Jason spoke up. From what he had seen Scorpius during lessons, aside from Herbology, Scorpius was more than capable of holding his own. Yes, he'd picked some great friends out.

Al shook his head.

"She's going to obsess over beating him... at everything." Al replied.

"Good for her." Scorpius replied, it was obvious to Jason that Scorpius didn't care much for his competition, and rather only cared about being top.

"Well, Scor, I can call you that right?" Jason asked, Scorpius cocked his head to the side as if to consider and then nodded. "Well, Scor, the way I see it, you focus on being top and if I have the time maybe I'll play a few mind games on her."

"Mind games?" Al asked sounding slightly worried. "That's my cousin you know."

"Dad always said one of the best ways to deal with competition was to mess with their minds." Jason said to Scorpius, he then turned to Al. "I know it's your cousin, but we are Scor's friends, so it's our duty to ensure that he comes out on top."

"I don't need help." Scorpius replied sounding slightly irritated.

"We aren't saying you need it, but take it anyway. You've helped me out tons already, at least let me help you out a bit." Jason smoothly replied back.

"Okay." Scorpius said, the corners of his lips turning up slightly.

"Oh and Al?" Jason said turning to Al. "Not a word of this to Rose."

"Fine." Al replied sounding defeated.

By this point the three boys had arrived at the quidditch pitch and unstrapped their brooms from their shoulders.

"Hey, Jason, you never said which broom you had." Al stated, looking at Jason's broom. Jason smiled smugly. It was not by accident he had kept it to himself.

"Come take a look." Jason replied smugly. He passed the broom over to Al.

"What!" Al said shocked taking a closer look at it. "How did you get a Swiftstick MKII? They cost 100 galleons."

"I changed all my muggle money for it at Gringotts." Jason replied. It had cost him five hundred pounds but he knew, like with football boots were a quick way to elevate your popularity.

"What about you Scorpius, what do you have?" Al asked.

"Same as your brother." he replied curtly. Jason looked at the sky and how the sun which had only just risen when they had gone outside was now fully visible. They only had an hour and a half or so till breakfast. Jason walked over and brought out a quaffle.

"What we going to do for Al?" Jason asked. Scorpius pulled a small white ball out of his pocket. "Is that a golf ball?" Scorpius nodded.

"An enchanted one. My Dad was a seeker, so he used to use them to practice." He tossed it at Al who caught it without any effort. "See the black cross on it?"

"Yeah." Al replied.

"Touch it once for the equivalent of a slow snitch, twice for a normal one and three times if... well if you are crazy." he continued. Jason stared at him somewhat slack jawed.

"I think that might just be the longest set of sentences you ever strung together, Scor" Jason said. Until now, he didn't know that Scor was capable of stringing so many sentences together. Scorpius shrugged.

"I can talk." he replied cooly. Jason winced slightly, he hadn't meant for it to be a stinging remark. "Enough talk anyway, lets practice."

The three of them jumped on their brooms. They rose up. Jason was slightly unsteady on his broom as he had only been using one since he had gotten broom at the beginning of summer. He looked at Al and Scorpius, both seemed very at home on their brooms.

"So, Scor, did your dad ever manage to catch this thing on crazy?" Al asked looking at the small golf ball.

"Once." Scorpius replied. "He says it was pure luck."

"Once is enough." Albus replied, his voice suddenly a lot more confident.

"Don't lose it!" Scorpius replied suddenly concerned. However it was already too late, Al tapped it three times and then almost jumped in shock as the white ball whizzed off.

"Crap!" Al shouted before whizzing off on his broom to find it. Jason laughed.

"He's not going to get it, is he?" Jason asked still in a fit of giggles.

"Nope." Scorpius said with a sigh. "Anyway get in goal." His eyes turned hard and Jason for a second felt a small amount of fear. It was like Scorpius had fire in his eyes.

Scorpius flew straight at Jason with the quaffle tucked safely under his arm. Jason was guarding the top goal when Scorpius raised his hand to throw the quaffle at the lower right goal hoop. Jason dived with his broom to cover it but no quaffle came. Scorpius lightly threw the quaffle into the middle hoop and started laughing. Jason frowned. If it was going to be like this then it was time to put all his football knowledge to use. To him the difference between the two sports seemed very minimal. On the whole quidditch was more like a three dimensional version of football. So he made it a bit easier on himself, he imagined that it was a goal he was in front of instead. Scorpius flew and picked up the quaffle.

"That one was for free, you aren't getting another one in!" Jason shouted. He felt a lot more secure, now he was viewing it as playing keeper. Scorpius came at him again and this time threw the quaffle straight at the top hoop. Jason dived and caught it easily. He felt a big smirk grace his face as he realised that quidditch really was just a messed up version of football.

Scorpius shook his head. He retrieved the quaffle and came at me again. This time Jason knew exactly where he was going and rushed Scorpius with his broom. They collided and Jason reached for the quaffle. Scorpius shoved the nose of Jason's broomstick downwards and the two of them ended up diving to the floor. Scorpius pulled off first leaving him free to score, whilst Jason just avoided smashing into the ground. Jason grinned. If Scorpius was going to play dirty, so could he. Jason flew back just as the quaffle left his hand he was lucky enough to be able to punch the quaffle skywards and watched as it sailed over the hoop.

"How long you been playing quidditch?" Scorpius asked looking at Jason.

"This is my second time in an actual game." Jason admitted.

"What?" he shouted his eyes flaring up. Jason silently noted this to be perhaps the biggest display of emotion from Scorpius.

"Chill out. Playing keeper in quidditch is just like playing it in football." Jason paused, remembering that Scorpius hadn't gone to a primary school. "You know what football is right?"

"Yeah, I read muggle books." Jason laughed at this.

"You and your books." Scorpius shrugged at this and went back to retrieve the quaffle. The two of them continues to pit themselves against each other for the next hour, acquiring many bruises as they progressively got more dirty and sly with their tactics. Jason was quite happy to collide into Scorpius and attempt to punch the quaffle from his grip, even if he missed and Scorpius was more than happy to use the quaffle as a bludger. About half an hour into their foul play version of penalty shootout Jason was flying towards Scorpius as he attempted to move out the way. Suddenly there was a flash of white followed by a collision. The collision was followed by falling and then pain. A lot of pain.

"Ngrrrrrrrrrrrrr." groaned Jason. He opened his eyes and and looked around. Al was beside him also groaning in pain. Scorpius was on his arms and knees not moving. Jason watched as Al lifted his right hand in the air and displayed the golfball.

"I... got... it..." he rasped. Scorpius looked over with a look of indignation.

"You better have it!" he shouted, before clutching at his ribs. "Ow!" Scorpius cried out.

"Well, I think we're done with quidditch for today." Jason said, he started to laugh and then clutched at his ribs painfully. The other two laughed briefly however they also succumbed to the pain they were in when they laughed.

"Can we walk to breakfast without someone making a joke?" Al asked.

"Ask Jason." Scorpius replied. Then he looked thoughtful. "Actually, don't. It's not worth the risk." causing the other two to start laughing again.

"I hate you, Scor." Al said shaking his head. The three of them walked back to the castle with their brooms slowly talking and trying to make each other laugh to induce pain. Jason being considerably good at this earned a lot of hateful glares after each one.

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

The three of them walked into the breakfast to be greeted by murmurs and stares. Jason was wondering what was wrong as they were looking at the three of them rather than just Malfoy. Also it wasn't the usual gryffindor stares accompanied by the words death eater. Rose Weasley who had been the subject of much conversation stood up and made a beeline for Al. She yanked him away from the two of them and sat him down on the gryffindor table.

"You think they realise he's a Slytherin?" Jason whispered to Scorpius. Scorpius shook his head. The two of them sat down next to Alice.

"What in merlin's name happened to you three?" she asked straight away. "You're all covered in bruises!" she gave Jason and Scorpius another look over. "You weren't fighting were you?"

"Quidditch." Scorpius replied simply.

"Quidditch." Jason confirmed. He found it quite amusing.

"Well you two had better let people know that because it looks like you were muggle duelling! There are already enough rumours floating around about..." she trailed off, glancing at Scorpius. Jason looked at Scorpius and watched as his face instantly became cold. He opened his mouth to speak up but at that moment a surly looking Al plonked his plate down on the table.

"What's wrong?" Alice asked.

"I'm going to murder my brother." Al replied simply.

"I don't think the press will take it kindly if you murder the first son of Harry Potter. Actually wait, they'd love it, you'd be in the papers for months."

"I would be dead first." he sighed "Killed by my mother."

"Why?" Scorpius asked.

"She favours him. Just because he loves to play quidditch as a chaser."

"Will you boys stop talking about quidditch for even two minutes?" Alice said indignantly. "Isn't it enough that you managed to beat each other to a pulp playing it this morning."

"We'll let you pick the topic to talk about then." Jason replied with a smile. "Do you have one ready?" his smile turning into a smirk.

"Ermmm... er..." Alice stuttered.

"It's okay. I'll pick one." Jason turned to Albus. "So which one of the redheads is your brother?"

"Look for the one surrounded by girls." he replies somewhat absent minded playing around with his food. Jason looked over at the gryffindor table. It was easy to spot by this description. James was surrounded by girls who were laughing as he was talking. He felt envious as back in primary school it was him that had that sort of status. Everyone wanted to know him. But here, it seemed like all you had to do was be a Weasley or a Potter and you were famous. Jason knew he was going to have to put in some real work to attain the same sort of status. He looked at Al and Scorpius and felt slightly more at ease. The two of them were famous and infamous. Being placed between the two would mean that people would quickly begin to notice him as well. Though he was going to have to put in some work to make sure that he wasn't just refered to as the tag along.

"Hey Scor, what class do we have first?" Jason asked, he waited for the famous 3 word answer.

"Transfiguration." Jason held up one finger. "Lightwater." and then another Hufflepuff." and then a third. It was met with laughs from everyone around. Even Scorpius smiled.

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

Jason walked into the transfiguration room talking animatedly with Al and Scorpius about which teams they preferred when it came to quidditch. They had been arguing over whether Puddlesmere united or the Tornado's were going to win that season when they walked in.

"Right, everyone stand at the back now." Came said a quiet but very well projected voice. It was Professor Lightwater. He was a tall bald man with piercing blue eyes. Everyone fell into immediate silence as his presence seemed to fill the room.

"You will be seated where I place you." he said again. His voice still quiet but the way he looked at them commanded an instant aura of respect. "You." he said looking at a short blonde haired Hufflepuff girl, Jason recognised her as Lucinda MacMillan from the sorting ceremony. "Sit there." he pointed to a a table. He placed everyone randomly. Jason found himself seated next to Elliot Harris.

"Right if you will take out your books and turn to page 10 please. You, whats your name?" Lightwater says, his eyes fixed on a tallish blonde haired, blue eyed boy in hufflepuff.

"Henry Edmunds, sir"

"Stand up and read the first paragraph." The boy rose to his feet and read out the paragraph and sat back down. Lightwater continued to assign them passages to read for the next 15 minutes, whilst the rest of them had to take notes. By this time Jason was thoroughly bored. He decided that rather than continuing to focus one hundred percent of his attention on the class he'd make some more friends and contacts. He tore off a bit of paper from his parchment, and wrote on it.

_Hey, how you finding the class?_

He slipped it over to Elliot wordlessly pretending to still be focused on his work. He watched from the corner of his right eye as Elliot's eyes widened slightly, looked around cautiously before scribbling with his quill on the paper.

_It's okay, teacher seems pretty scary though._

_Yeah, I'm just waiting for someone to get caught talking, he might kill them with his eyes._

_What like some kind of human-basilisk mix?_

_Totally, his eyes look like they have fire in them. Anyway how are the people in your house?_

_Really nice actually. We've got five boys and four girls. What about yours, don't you have that Malfoy boy and Albus Potter?_

Jason had to read that note over twice. He tried to think of a way to change the perception of Scorpius. It would be easier for him if people would start looking at Scorpius in a good light, but that would take a while.

_Yeah. Scorpius is pretty cool actually. He's really good at quidditch and so is Albus. We were playing this morning, that's why we are all covered in bruises._

He watched as Elliot's eyes increased in size at this note.

_Really? Sophie Wade said that you three had been in a fight._

_Well there were many fights over the quaffle. Anyway, you play quidditch?_

_Never tried._

_Why not?_

_I'm a muggleborn._

_Awesome. My dad's a muggle. You miss videogames?_

_So much! And football too!_

_Awesome. Who do you support?_

_Chelsea_

_We can't be friends anymore. I'm a tottenham supporter._

At this point Jason noticed Elliot covering his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud. Things were going pretty well, he felt he could now stir the conversation into the direction he wanted.

_Anyway, you seem pretty cool. You mind introducing me to your friends at somepoint?_

_Sure, come sit down on the hufflepuff table during lunch._

Inwardly Jason was jumping for joy. He had gotten exactly what he wanted. Of course, he was aware that Hufflepuffs were friendlier than most and that it would be a lot harder to be given the chance to do the same with the Ravenclaw bunch and even harder with the Gryffindors.

Jason and continued passing notes back and forth during the class until the end.

-x-y-z-a-b-c

"So what do we have next Scor?" Al asked, when the three left the classroom.

"Charms, Flitwick, Gryffindor." Scorpius replied.

The three of them made their to the charms classroom.

The class was greeted amicably by Proffesor Flitwitck.

"Come in and sit down all. And if you would take out your quills and wands please." He stated.

Jason, Al and Scorpius sat down together. Jason looked around the class and noticed one thing immediately. The Gryffindors were all looking at Scorpius whispering. Jason couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Scorpius. After all was it really fair that because of the family he was born into that he was so hated. Jason however noticed that all it seemed to do was put a hard look on Scorpius' face.

"Right today, I will be teaching you a simple levitation charm." Flitwick began. "If you will take out your wands and practice the motion with me."

"Wingardium Leviosa." Flitwick said with a swish of his wand.

"Wingardium Levisoa." the class repeated. Jason spotted Rose Weasley and his mind began twisting cogs.

"Hey, Scor, what's the counter charm to this?" Jason whispered.

"Try, pondus gravis." Scorpius replied. He then turned to look at Jason. "Why?" at this point Al also turned curious.

"Wait and see." Jason said, a smirk gracing his face.

"Right would anyone like to try first?" Flitwick asked the class. Rose Weasley's hand shot right up immediately. Scorpius let out a giggle that was totally unlike him causing the class to look his way. Rose was staring daggers at Scorpius

"Would you be so kind as to tell me what is so funny, Malfoy?" Flitwick asked.

"Nothing sir, sorry." Scorpius stated whilst looking down and apologetic.

"Right, Miss Weasley if you will."

"Pondus Gravis." Jason muttered pointing his wand at Rose's quill.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" she said strongly pointing her wand at the quill. Yet the quill did nothing. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she tried again, this time practically shouting. But the quill went nowhere as Jason still had his wand pointed on the quill.

"Well keep practicing, Miss Weasley, I'm sure you will get it." Flitwick said sympathetically. "Would anyone else like to try?"

"Scor, raise your hand." Jason whispered.

"Why?"

"Just do it." Jason said again. Scorpius pointed his wand at the quill.

"Wingardium Leviosa." his wand began to rise into the air gracefully.

"Very well done Mr. Malfoy." Flitwick said. "10 points to Slytherin." Rose turned to look at Scorpius with such a strong glare which was met back with an emotionless mask. Al and Jason began to giggle at this covering their mouths with their robes.

"You've really done it now." Al whispered. "She's going to kill you."

"Right the rest of you can go ahead and practice." Flitwick said.

"Should we do it again?" Al asked clearly finding the whole situation quite funny.

"No." Jason answered. "It's a mind game." The three of them watched as this time her quill elevated just fine. She looked flabbergasted causing the three of them to laugh again.

"You're evil, Jason." Al said in between his giggles. "She looks like she's been confunded."

"Well blame my dad. He taught me all about mind games." Jason replied happily.

The rest of the class passed with out much incident although Rose continued to glare at the three of them continuously.

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

Al, Jason and Scorpius walked into great hall together.

"I'll see you two later." Jason said peeling off from the other two.

"Where you going?" Al asked.

"Oh I said I'd eat lunch with one of the guys from Hufflepuff." Jason replied nonchalantly. The two of them gave him oddlooks but said nothing else. He was going to be doing them a favour anyway. Jason wound his way towards the hufflepuff table and scanned for Elliot.

"Hey, Jason!" Elliot called out, obviously having spotted him looking like a fish out of water. "Come sit over here." he said with a bright smile. Jason walked over with a smile and sat down.

"Guys, this is Jason and he's in Slytherin." Elliot said introducing him. At the mention of Slytherin a few brows furrowed but Jason had expected as much. House reputations preceeded them at the school, and it had become apparent very quickly that there wasn't much interhouse mingling if you were in Slytherin.

"Jason this is Luci, Zelasi, Richard, Sophie, Henry and Tom." Elliot said motioning to each person.

"Hey guys." Jason said with a warm smile on his face. "So how you all finding Hogwarts?" the rest of the group seemed to visibly relax after Jason had greeted them.

"It's hard work." said Richard with a sigh. "I've already got a mountain of homework." the others murmured in agreement.

"Yeah us too. Flitwick told us to write 12 inches on the charm Wingardium Leviosa." Jason said agreeably.

"You guys too?" piped in Lucinda. "I found it hard just to even get the spell right."

"Got a funny story about that actually." Jason said grinning. "You guys know Rose Weasley right."

"How could we not?" said Henry. He stuck his hand up in the air and pretended to look really eager. The table descended into fits of laughter.

"Do you guys also know Scorpius?" Jason then asked.

"Who that Malfoy boy?" Sophie said with a scowl. "My mom told me to stay away from him."

"Well he's actually really cool, he's friends with Al Potter and I." Jason name dropped. It would make things easier for Scorpius if he was associated with Al Potter after all he was the son of the most famous man in the wizarding world since Merlin. "Anyway, Rose Weasley came up to do a class demonstration on how charm a quill." At this there were murmurs of how unsurprising this was. "Wait she's like this in your classes too?" Jason asked feigning ignorance. He knew perfectly well she would be.

"Totally, she's always trying to win the teachers favour. You should see what she's like in Herbology with Professor Longbottom." chimed Richard.

"Well anyway, she stood up and tried to do the spell in front of everyone and failed." Jason said brightly.

"Really? She's always been really good at spells in our class." chimed in Tom. He sounded somewhat jealous.

"Well, it got better. Scorpius is like really smart too. Anyway so he did the spell right afterwards and it worked for him. And she had a silent hissy fit." Jason said trying not to laugh. "She looked like she wanted to storm out of the class. It was damn funny."

"I wish I had been there. She seems a bit arrogant." Tom said happily.

"I'll make sure to get a Polaroid next time Scor beats her in something. It's like the two of them have settled into some kind of rivalry."

"What's he doing in Slytherin if he's so smart?" Zelasi pondered out loud.

"Well he told me that he was nearly put in Ravenclaw." Jason replied. He saw now as the opportune moment to make everyone feel a little bad for Scorpius. "I feel bad for him though. A lot of people are talking behind his back about his dad when he's actually really cool. He doesn't say anything but I can tell it really bothers him." the statement had the desired effect. The Hufflepuffs began to look slightly guilty at this. Jason grinned inwardly, they'd taken the bait hook line and sinker.

"Well I guess if you and Albus Potter are happy to be friends with him then he must be alright." Elliot chimes in. Jason grinned. Things were going according to plan.

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><p>So that chapter came out okayish. I hope I conveyed Jason well enough for an intro. You'll get to know them better and more intricately soon enough. Oh and things are soon going to get very interesting. Anyway read and <strong>REVIEW<strong>. Just one word is enough. It makes me feel happy, and inspires me to write. On that note a shout out to **vox populi 12** for inspiring me to get this chapter done sooner rather than later.


	4. Fights and Quidditch

Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. Enjoy the chapter Review, FLAME and COMPLAIN. It's the only way I'll make this story better.

* * *

><p>The library had to be Scorpius' favorite place in Hogwarts. It was silent and full of books, much like his room at home. It was Friday evening before dinner and he had his nose deeply engrossed inside a new edition of Hogwarts a History. Hogwarts. His father hadn't told him nearly enough about the school. For one, it hadn't been till he had arrived that he realised that he was infamous. His father's and grandfathers reputation preceded him and he hated it. Whispers in the corridor, the looks people gave him. Most people seemed to give him a wide berth. It didn't help that he wasn't the most talkative, but he'd never really had anyone to talk to until he came to Hogwarts. Thankfully at least, he had made two friends. One of them was a Potter of all people. With all the warnings his father had given him it was very surprising that a Potter would even want to be friends with him. His other friend, Jason, had also been very accepting and warm, despite his last name. He enjoyed their company immensely, he'd never smiled and laughed so much in his life, but then again, he'd also never had friends. It may have only been 5 days, but he certainly loved Hogwarts already.<p>

Scorpius looked around the library it was almost empty aside from one other person. A bushy red haired girl who had her head also buried in a book. Rose Weasley. If there was anyone who he disliked in Hogwarts it would be her. She was loud, outspoken, arrogant and annoyingly smart. In every class they shared she was always the first to raise her hand, always the first to demonstrate her academic prowess. Everyone knew she knew the answer including the Professors, yet she had to do it anyway. He'd mentioned her in his first letter to his mother and father briefly and is father had written back to say she was just like her mother and he shouldn't pay attention to it. Scorpius didn't understand why she couldn't just get on with the lessons quietly and let her homework do the talking, after all that s what he did. But the worst part was that she was the only person blocking him from being constantly top in class. Aside from when Jason made it his business to throw her off track. Jason had a natural talent for messing with people Scorpius had noticed.

"What are you looking at?" called out a voice indignant. Scorpius snapped out of his stupor to realise that Rose was talking to him. Her blue eyes with a piercing gaze on his gray ones.

"Nothing." he sneered. By now just her voice was enough to annoy him.

"Well, clearly that's a bloody lie, you've been looking at me for the last two minutes. I'm trying to study here and it s annoying."

"What eloquent language. Would have expected more diversity from someone as outspoken as you." he replied back. At this her face contorted and she let out a snarl. Scorpius was very sure that he really disliked this girl now. [A/N: sue me, but lets be honest, you all figured out what's going to happen to these two ages ago].

"Talking like a thesaurus doesn't one smart. They just sound pretentious." She snarled.

"Well thankfully, we have grades to display the fact that I'm smarter than you." he replied with a smirk.

"In which deluded world do you live that you think you are smarter than me?" she shouted back. Rose was now seething with rage.

"The one where you struggled to even levitate a mere quill in front of the whole class. Maybe you should have been in Slytherin."

"No, I'll leave that to death eater spawn like you and your father." she replied.

"Don't! You! EVER! Call! Me! That! AGAIN!" he shouted, his pale face now red and shaking. At this Scorpius could see Rose visibly flinched even from across the room. "My father is a kind man! And if I ever hear you say that again, I'll hex you!"

"This is the library! If you two want carry out a shouting match do it elsewhere. Now get out!" shouted a third older voice. The two of them looked over to see the source of the voice. It was the librarian, Madame Ponce. The two of them just looked at her, saying nothing. "OUT!" she cried again. Scorpius picked up his books and left the library, slamming the door in Rose's face.

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

Scorpius and Al were sitting at the Slytherin dining table for dinner. They had come down with Jason, but he was sitting on the ravenclaw table animatedly talking with the first years there.

"What's up, Scor?" Al asked him.

"Nothing." he curtly.

"You haven't touched your food." Al replied. "Seriously, what happened."

Scorpius thought about whether he should let Al know what happened. He knew that Rose and Al were good friends. But he then again, maybe that would be the perfect way to get back at Rose.

"Your cousin."

"Which cousin?" Al laughed. "I have eight here at the moment."

"Rose."

"She beat you in a test?" Al said with a smirk on his face.

"She called me death eater spawn." the smile on Al's face dropped immediately.

"What?" he asked, his voice harder.

"She called my dad and I death eater spawn." Scorpius replied, his voice was dripping with malice. It made Al recoil.

"Sorry, I'll talk to her."

"Don't apologise for her." Scorpius replied harshly causing Al to flinch. Scorpius winced at this. Al had been nothing but friendly. He felt bad for taking out and Scorpius felt bad for taking out his anger on Al. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you." he sighed. "It's just, my dad has always been very loving. He's nothing like my Granfather." Scorpius knew that his Dad and his Grandfather didn't see eye to eye at all. There had been many arguments between the two of them that he could remember since he even had any memories at all. His mum refused to speak to his Grandfather outright due to a difference in fundamental opinion over blood status.

"I'm still going to talk to her. She has no right to say such things." Al said, annoyed. Scorpius felt grateful for that. It was nice to have people who didn't just see him as a Malfoy.

"Thanks." he said gruffly. Al stood up. "Wait, now?" Scorpius said. He was surprised, he hadn't expected Al to be so admamant about going up against his own family.

"Now." Al replied.

Scorpius watched as Al walked over to the Gryffindor table to where Rose and her cousins were sat. He saw Al say something, followed by James Potter. Al turned to Rose, his face shaped into a scowl to say something. Rose turned back and seemed to reply angrily. Al said something again this time his face looked even more angrily and then James intervened with another thing. Al stormed away and back to the Slytherin table.

"She gives you any more trouble at all tell me and I'll make her life hell." Al said simply.

"Thanks. But you don't have to go up against your entire family for me." Scorpius said, feeling guilty.

"They are already going against me just because I'm in Slytherin and friends with you." Albus said pointedly.

"Really? Their meant to be family." Scorpius said frowning.

"Tell me about it." Al sighed. "Anyway, I told Rose that I'm not speaking to her until she apologises to you."

"What?" But she's your best friend!" Scorpius exclaimed, he felt an equal amount of surprise and guilt. After all he had provoked Rose somewhat.

"You're my friend too. Anyway, I know Rose, the silent treatment really gets to her, she'd rather fight all day than be ignored." Al replied happily. Scorpius felt a real sense of gratitude well up at this.

"Thanks. You really don't have to do all of this over me you know."

"She's being an ass. Of course I have to." Al replied.

"Al, Scor, you guys done with dinner?" The two boys looked up to see Jason stading behind them. Both of them nodded. "Let's get out of here. Need to talk to you two."

Al and Scorpius stood up and then the three of them walked out of the dining room.

"So what do you want to talk to us about" asked Al as they began to walk towards the dungeons.

"Not here." Jason replied. "We'll go talk in the common room. Don't want to chance being overheard by someone else in that is in another house." and so the three of them continued to walk in silence. Eventually they reached a walk in the dungeons that had an odd formation of bricks. Al touched it.

"Parslemouth." Al said the password and then the bricks began sliding around to form an archway into the common room.

The common room was pretty empty, a few of the fifth years were sat on chairs around the green fireplace in the centre of the room discussing the increased workload they had due to it being O.W.L year for them.

"Over there." Jason motioned to where there were three chairs in the corner of the room. They walked over and sat down feeling relaxed.

"So I'm guessing you two are wondering why I've been spending time talking to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff lot, right?" Jason asked. The other two nodded.

"Well it's for two reasons really. First of all, I've been trying to sort out your... um... reputation." he continued, nodding at Scorpius. "Thought it would be good if people weren't reffering to you as em... well you know what." Jason finishes, bashfully.

"As for the second reason. That involves the three of us. Remember when I said I wanted to start a bookies for quidditch?"

"Yeh." Al replied. Scorpius nodded. He had been very interested in the idea as it seemed like a decent way to have a steady amount of income, which in turn meant that he would have to put less pressure on his parents to buy things for him. His parents didn't talk much about money when they were in front of him, but he knew it was an issue.

"Basically, I've managed to find out when all the qudditch tryouts are. All except for Gryffindor, going to need your help for that one Al. Anyway, what we have to do is spy on every try out and take down stats for each player. That means how many times they pass the quaffle, how many times they succeed, the amount of times they score, how fast they are, things like that. You guys up for that."

"Sure." Scorpius replied.

"Sounds like fun." Al said at the same time.

"Anyway Al, I'm going to need your help with Gryffindor, they seem to dislike me cause, well I'm a Slytherin and well... friends with Scor."

"I'm not sure I can help, I got into an argument with Rose at dinner, James too." Al admits sheepishly. Jason cocks his head as he always does when he's thinking of an idea.

"What was the argument over?" Jason asked.

"Scor." Al replies. "She called him death eater spawn. So I told her that I refuse to speak to her until she apologises to Scor." Jason sighed.

"Don't take this the wrong way Al, but your cousin is an arrogant bitch." Jason said. Al just laughed at this followed by Scorpius and Jason. "Anyway, you should probably just try guilting her into saying sorry." Jason says it like it's the easiest thing in the world causing the other two to look at him with a fair amount of disbelief. "What? It works." Jason said with a shrug.

In the 5 days that Scorpius had been in Hogwarts he had already picked up the fact that Jason was a master manipulator. He had a smooth tongue that seemed to be able to charm many people into viewing him well and doing what he wanted. It was quite scary. Even the teachers all liked him. He would ask questions in class to show interest without overdoing it like a certain Weasley. He would speak to those from other houses. Scorpius had once doubted the reason as to why Jason was in Slytherin but now he was certain, he didn't belong anywhere else. He was in possesion of heaps of cunning and it was showing. Even better, he seemed to geniunely care about Scorpius' reputation and how he was treated.

"Scor! Stop spacing out!" Al says with a light shove.

"Oh, sorry." Scorpius apologized. "What did you guys say?"

"Well I was just about to tell Al exactly how to make her feel guilty." Jason replies, a diagonal smirk gracing his face and a glint in his eye.

"So Al, what you are going to have to do is indirectly make her feel guilty. I think a good place to start would be mentioning that here in Slytherin, nobody has called you a... is it blood traitor?" Jason asked for the term uncertainly.

"Yes. That's what my grandfather says." Scorpius replied, his voice cold. His Grandfather had no quams about saying

"Well yeah, say that. Also another thing to say is that people haven't judged you just because of who your parents are. Finally maybe slip in that you feel bad for the kids who do get labelled simply because they were born." Jason finishes. It's clear he feels thoroughly pleased with his devious idea.

"Jason, that is so..." Al starts

"Devious." Scorpius finishes. The two of them looking at him in wonder. Jason beamed at the 'praise'.

"Anyway, when you and Rose are speaking again, I'll need you to introduce me to her and her friends, Al. Now lets get to bed, you two have quidditch tryouts tomorrow." Jason finished.

"Wait, you're not going to try?" Al asked, surprised.

"I'm not nearly good enough." Jason admits. "Anyway, I'll be too busy watching you guys and taking notes."

"You're going to take notes on our practice too?" Al asked.

"Yeah, and then once I've got the stats on all of them I'll send them to my dad and he'll do all the harder maths." [A/N: The author of this story... me... has a decent understanding of actuary science lol]

"Maths?" Al asked.

"Numerology to wizards." Scorpius supplied.

"It's really hard. My dad's been teaching me for a year now here and there but I still can't do it alone." Jason admitted.

"Why would you willingly practice numerology? You're mad!" Al replied.

"Makes money." Jason said with a shrug. "Anyway, sorry to be like a mother, but bed! You two have to get into the team!"

"Okay okay." Al replied with a small laugh.

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

Al, Scorpius and Jason were walking to the quidditch pitch. Al and Scorpius had their brooms with them. They arrived at the pitch to find roughly 20 other Slytherins talking amongst themselves.

"Hey look! First years who think they can make the team!" someone shouted. There was a general laugh that went up as everyone turned to look at Al and Scorpius.

"Wait, it's Potter and Malfoy." it was Theodore Notts II that spoke up with a thoughtful look on his face, captain of the quidditch team. Scorpius knew him as Notts' father was friends with his own. "Let's see how they stack up, their parents were in quidditch teams young." Theodore was a brunette boy in his 6th year, lanky in build and fairly tall. He drew a deep breath puffing up his chest before turning to speak to everyone.

"Right, is everyone ready?" his voice booming. There were nods and verbal confirmations abound. "First of all I have to let you know what the situation is. We are looking for a new chaser and a new beater." At this there were murmurs, they hadn't expected so few positions to be available. "Anyone who is after another position is going to have to go up against a member of the current team to get it." Scorpius looked at Al, who looked visibly bothered by this announcement. Scorpius felt a little nervous too. He felt sure that the majority of the people here would be after the chaser position.

"First of all I want everyone to get on their brooms and fly over to the north rings!" Notts shouted. Scorpius and Al jumped on their brooms and flew over easily enough. Most people did. However there were a few who were a bit shaky. Notts, who was at the goal rings with two others who were all watching passively, noticed those who were struggling to stay stable immediately.

"You, you and you. Clear off! We have no business with people who can't fly." Notts said angrily. The three boys went back down to the ground, angrily and walked off.

"Right, I'm going to divide you all up first." Notts spoke again. "Chasers will go off with Zabini." He said motioning to Arturo who was comfortably sitting on his broom watching passively. "Beaters go off with Davidson." he motioned to Anna Davidson, a girl with long blonde hair and hard eyes. "Seekers can stay and watch for now. We'll be pitting you against Crouchfield soon enough. If you can catch the snitch before him, you'll replace him. But I doubt anyone will." Andrew Crouchfield was dark skinned male who was in his fifth year at hogwarts, he had a confident demeanour at this statement suggesting that it didn't seem likely at all that someone would take his spot. Scorpius looked over at Albus. Where before he had looked a bit nervous, the nerves seemed to have been replaced with fire in his eyes.

"Chasers, follow me!" Called out Zabini. Zabini flew off to the other side of the pitch. Scorpius followed after him. He looked around at the competition, eight others had followed.

"We are going to start off with some simple passing drills. If you drop the quaffle, that is it. Trial over, go back to the dungeons. I'll be upping the intensity till there are four of you left. For now fly laps around the pitch in a V formation passing the quaffle back and forth."

This task proved to be easy enough. They were flying around in a V formation passing the quaffle back and forth. Scorpius found it pretty relaxing, he didn't have to think, he felt at home on his broom. After seven laps nobody had dropped the quaffle so Zabini stopped them.

"So you're all competent at flying and passing with no pressure. Now is when the real fun begins." Zabini said rubbing his hands together in excitement. He took out his wand and swiped it at 4 of them. Their robes all turned green. He then swiped it at the other Scorpius and the other 3 turning their robes silver.

"Greens, you all know what the finger four formation is I hope." Scorpius unconciously nodded even though he was silver. It was a flying formation that was used in both quidditch chaser flying tactics and muggle flying dogfights (he'd learned about the second one by reading about those mad machines that muggles used to travel in the air). The formation was simple enough, two on offense, two on defence [A/N: Sue me, I'm a guy and I know a lot about war, formations and stuff. For example bet you guys didn't know that the V formation reduces drag by up to 75% for those who aren't leader, but its a terrible formation for offense]. Zabini tossed the quaffle at one of the other boys in silver.

"You 4 four fly to the centre of the pitch." Zabini directed to the silver group. "You simply have to score. Greens, get the quaffle off them. I'll give you one minute to coordinate yourselves."

Scorpius and the other three took off to the centre. When they got there the boy with the quaffle spoke up.

"Names, we need names if we are at least going to be able to pass it to each other." He said simply. "I'm Alex Flint. 4th year." Flint was rather tall and muscular for his age with blue eyes, large teeth and short black hair.

"Cygnus Rosier." Cygnus was a fifth year with messy brown hair, brown eyes and a very average build.

"Greg Burke." Burke was sixth year who was pretty famous around the school. He was known because he was by far the best defence against the dark arts student. Those in Slytherin said it was because he spent a lot of time at Borgin and Burkes.

"Scorpius Malfoy."

"Quite the family reunion we have here." Burke said with a little laugh.

"What?" Rosier asked perplexed.

"We're all related to the Blacks." Burkes replied.

"Don't tell me you still buy into that blood nonsense Burkes." Flint replied looking a little peeved. Scorpius frowned too.

"No, not at all. If we purebloods interbred anymore we'd probably wipe ourselves out. Anyway, stick close and just keep the quaffle moving." Burkes replied.

"OI, you four, get moving!" Shouted Zabini.

"V formation, protect me!" Flint called out. Scorpius, Burkes and Cygnus formed a V with Flint behind them. They flew straight at the other four were flying back at them. One of them cut straight under and back up headed for Flint.

"Burkes!" Flint shouted, tossing the quaffle at him. Burkes caught it just as the guy who had been on the offensive against Flint slammed into him. Burkes was now pinned in the middle between two other chasers.

"Malfoy!" he shouted. He threw the quaffle downwards and Scorpius dived to reach it. He caught it a few metres from the ground and continued to fly low. He was now being chased by two of the opposing chasers from behind and one that was dead ahead. Scorpius pulled on his knowledge of quidditch and began to perform the Woollongong Shimmy, shifting from side to side in a zigzag manner. He managed to just dodge the final chaser, and with a trademark Malfoy smirk gracing his features he tossed the quaffle straight through the middle hoop.

"Sloppy play from both sides! You'll have to do better than that!" Zabini shouts. Scorpius frowned, he thought they had done decent but obviously not. "AGAIN!" Zabini cried out.

The silver group had the quaffle four more times. Every time both teams seemed to subconsciously be able to work together better, they stopped calling out names and just passed the quaffle about. On the final play, Scorpius had deliberately let the opponent chasers try a Parkin's Pincer on him. Last second he dived down to let the three of them colide. It was a dirty tactic, causing the three of them to drop to the floor, but it worked and he even saw a ghost of a smile cross Zabini's face.

"Switch." Zabini called. They were now on defence.

"Okay, they'll probably give the quaffle to Bullstrode." Flint started. Amanda Bullstrode was a fairly bigboned brunette girl in green who had been the most difficult to pass. She was somewhat skilled at flying and even better at taking the quaffle. "When she gets it, Rosier and I will pincer her, Burke will take the quaffle off her and pass it to Malfoy as he is the most agile."

Things did not go according to plan however. The moment Flint got close to Bullstrode, another chaser shoulder-barged him causing him to fall off his broom. Rosier came in next but Bullstrode simply dodged to the side. Burkes swore and took off after her, Scorpius following Burke. Burke slammed straight into Bullstrode the quaffle went flying up in the air and Scorpius gunned for it, however it wasn't to be as another chaser stole it and tossed it straight through the left ring.

For the next two plays, things were close but the other side still managed to score.

"Guys, we can do this. Rosier, Burke and I will take care of the rest. Malfoy get that bloody quaffle!" Flint said. The bigger three flew straight at those who were guarding Bullstrodge and collided with them, Bullstrode shot straight through them. Malfoy went for her, as they got close he decided he'd try and pull off anther quidditch tactice he'd read, he pulled up his right arm and aimed a punch straight at her face. There was a seconds hesitation in Bullstrode's eyes as she saw what was coming and Scorpius stopped his fist and smashed his left arm straight into the quaffle. It flew out of Bullstrode's grip and Flint caught it.

"Stop!" Called out Zabini, a smile actually gracing his normally stoic features. Scorpius smirked. "Much better. From both sides." "You, you, you and you." Zabini said, pointing at Rosier and two of the chasers on the other team. Scorpius heart sped up, thinking he was about to be sent back to the dungeons. "Trial over, back to the dungeons." Scorpius let out a sigh of relief. "You four, follow me." They flew over to where Albus and Notts had been watching the practice.

"You lot wait here." Zabini said gruffly and then he dismounted and walked off talking hushly with Notts.

"How you doing?" Al whispered to Scorpius.

"Okay, Burke and Bullstrode are good. Fierce competition." Scorpius admitted.

"Don't worry, Notts was watching you and said you were really good for a first year." Al reassured him gripping his shoulder. Scorpius didn't feel very reassured however.

"Where's Jason?" Scorpius asked. Al pointed to one of the stands where he could see Jason watching the beaters and writing notes down on a piece of parchment.

"Looks like a coach, doesn't he?" Al said with a little laugh. Scorpius nodded, feeling too nervous to laugh.

"Hey look, the beaters are done." called out Bullstrode. The group of chasers and Al looked over to see the majority of them walking away from the pitch disheartened. Some were kicking at the ground, others swearing. Three however were walking towards the rest of the group with nervous smiles. Further away, Scorpius could make out three other figures flying towards the pitch.

"Who are they?" Al asked, point up at them.

"That's the rest of the team." Flint answered, a tremor in his voice. The group waited nerves showing as the six slytherins from the team of last year had a private discussion. Scorpius knew what was coming next, they all did. It was obvious. They were about to play a match against the current team, who had been playing together at least a year.

"Crunch time people. We are going to play a game. Six versus seven. I'll play keeper for you hopefuls." Notts said brightly. "Oh and Bullstrode, for now you'll be playing against the rest of you hopefuls." At this Scorpius felt his heart sink a little and his face fell. He looked around to see he wasn't the only one disheartened, Burke had a horrid scowl on his face. However he knew the odds were stacked against him anyway, there were very few first year chasers in the history of all the house teams.

The two teams hopped on their brooms, one side looking highly confident, the other looking back with a high amount of nerves. Scorpius noticed that Al was shaking slightly.

"Ready?" Called out Notts. Everyone nodded their heads. "Go." And with that a box in the centre of the field sprung open and three 4 balls wizzed out. Bullstrode immediately took the quaffle and passed it to another chaser on the team, who passed it to another. They kept the quaffle moving at such a fast pace it was very hard to keep track of it. Burke luckily managed to intercpet a pass just before Zabini would have been free to make a throw at one of the rings. He zoomed forward and passed the ball to Flint however at the same moment Flint got hit on the side by a bludger causing him to begin to fall to the floor, Malfoy swooped in and took the quaffle, he saw Zabini coming for him next and so feinted a pass to make Zabini move for the intercept however he just kept flying forward before tossing it to Burke who tossed the quaffle to the other chaser in the team that was waiting by the goal rings. The quaffle went from the third chaser, Stevens, into the hoop. The official Slytherin team stopped at a loss as to how they were down from the beginning. Notts signalled for a time out.

"Malfoy, Bullstrode. Switch teams." he called out. At this, Scorpius allowed a true Malfoy smirk to grace his face. When the game restarted, Scorpius found that the official Slytherin team were a lot more fluid. The quaffle rarely stayed in anyones grip for too long. It kept moving about fluidly. Scorpius easily set into the pace of play of the team, distributing the quaffle around intelligently to other chasers who were in spaces. The only problem was Notts. He was a good keeper and very few quaffles were getting past him.

Half an hour into the game the game, Crouchfield, who had been pretty stoic during the whole game suddenly took off flying at full pelt. Scorpius heard Al curse and watched as he shot off after Crouchfield. Whilst he was distracted, the other side used this chance to score ten points. Scorpius sighed and flew after Zabini who now had the quaffle to support him. From the corner of his eye, he could see that Al had now drawn level with Crouchfield and the two of them were chasing after the snitch.

"Crouchfield!" shouted a loud high pitched male voice. Crouchfield looked up for a split second to see the source. At that exact moment Al leaned forward and grasped the snitch in his fingers. Scorpius looked around to try and figure out the source of the loud shout, though he had his suspicions that it had been none other than Jason. Crouchfield looked a lot less than amused as he flew straight towards Notts. The two of them appeared to be talking when Crouchfield seemed to get angry.

"WHAT?" Crouchfield shouted. "He got lucky, that s all! Someone distracted me, you heard!"

"You shouldn't get distracted in the first place. And anyway, you spotted the snitch first and he still got it. I'm sorry but in the interests of the team I'm going to have to drop you." Notts said.

"This. Is. BULLSHIT." Crouchfield shouted. "How are you going to replace a fifth year seeker with a first year just because he got lucky and his last name is fucking Potter!"

"That hasn't got anything to do with it. He flew better than you. Get over it." Notts replied, looking bored. Crouchfield turned around and stormed off at this.

"Right, I'm sure you all enjoyed that spectacle." Notts began. It was followed by snickers from everyone else who had gathered around. "But I have to let you all know that you played shoddily. Of course this was the first practice of the year, try-outs at that, but it was shoddy play anyway."

"Malfoy, Bullstrode, Parker and Potter remain here. The rest of you go back to the dungeons. Trial over." Notts then said. Scorpius felt his heart leap into his throat now beating at what felt like 500 beats a second even though he knew it was more likely to be 3 beats a second. Notts, Zabini and Davidson were deep in a whispered conversation as the rest of them waited.

"So who shouted Crouchfield's name?" Al whispered to Scorpius. Scorpius shrugged. He had his suspicions but he wanted to confirm them first.

"You should be happy either way, you're now the youngest seeker in Hogwarts." Scorpius whispered back. Al face beamed at this, a bright smile gracing his features.

"I am, I just wish my birthday had been later than Dad's. I wanted to beat his record." Al replied, sounding a bit down.

"Well, that shouldn't be too hard to beat his others. Your dad had awful luck on and off the quidditch pitch meaning he lost a lot more than he should have." Scorpius replied. Al seemed to cheer up at this fact.

"Oh, where is Jason?" Al asked suddenly whilst looking around the stands.

"He disappeared." Scorpius replied. Though he had a suspiscion that he was merely hiding after distracting Crouchfield. At this point, the three Slytherin team members came back.

"Malfoy, Parker, and Potter. Welcome to the team." Notts said with a smile. "Sorry Bullstrode, but we didn't feel that you would fit in the team as well as Malfoy despite your skill level, but try again next year." Scorpius nearly couldn't believe it. He, a first year, had made the team as a chaser. First year chasers were so rare and he'd still managed to become one. He couldn't wait to write to his dad to see what he would have to say about it. Surely that would be something to be proud of. Of course he had a long way to go. If they really were as sloppy as Notts claimed, it wouldn't be all that great to be known as the worst chaser in Hogwarts. He made a mental note to order more books on quidditch and schedule more early morning practices.

"Scor, you there?" Al asked, waving his hands in front of Scorpius' eyes. "You zone out all the time." Al continued with a sigh.

"Sorry."

"Come on, lets get out of here." Scorpius nodded and the two of them began to walk back to the dungeons with their brooms slung over their shoulders. The two of them had barely walked out of the quidditch pitch when they heard a hissing sound.

"Psssssst." The two of them looked around. "Over here." Came a whispered voice. The two boys looked over to see Jason standing by a tree.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing over there?" Al asked as the two of them walked over.

"Hiding from them." Scorpius replied pointing at the rest of the team who had walked ahead. He was certain now, it was Jason who had shouted.

"Why?" Al asked.

"Felt like it." Jason replied smoothly. Al gave him a funny look but said nothing. Scorpius however wasn't so easily taken in. When the three got back to the dungeons Scorpius pulled Jason aside as he was curious.

"Why didn't you tell him?" Scorpius asked.

"Tell him what?" Jason said, winking at the same time.

"I know it was you." Scorpius replied.

"Look, if I told him, he'd feel like he didn't deserve a spot on the team." Jason said with a lot more seriousness coming into his voice. Scorpius nodded, it made sense. "Anyway, go shower and change. I'm hungry." Scorpius nodded and headed off to the shower.

-x-y-z-a-b-c-

"Scorp! How long does it take to get ready?" Jason complained exasperated.

"You take as long as my cousins Victorie and Dominique." Al snickered. Scorpius frowned a little and continued combing his hair. His father had always stressed the importance of making sure that he looked presentable wherever he went, saying that people treated you better if you dressed well. So naturally he had taken this to heart. Though he wasn't spoiled, far from it even, his father had always taken care to make sure he had well kept clothes and that he made himself look presentable before meals. It was a little tedious, but it made his father happy.

"Scorp. You're doing it again! Stop spacing out and lets go. Your hair is fine and I'm very hungry." Jason said. Scorpius looked in the mirror, sighed, slid his comb into a pocket in his robes and turned.

"Lets go." Scorpius said simply.

"Finally. Lets go stuff our faces with grub." Jason said enthusiastically.

"Grub?" Al questioned.

"Colloquialism for food." Scorpius chimed in.

"Stop talking like Rose." Al grumbled as the three walked out.

The three of the walked to dinner at a somewhat accelerated pace led by Jason. They entered and plenty of eyes turned towards them.

"Can I call you two Fame and Infame?" Jason quipped to his two friends.

"Huh?" Scorpius spluttered.

"What?" Al asked at the same time confused.

"Well, ever since you came two here have always managed to draw attention." Jason explained.

"You think I want to be noticed?" Scorpius asked, his voice cold.

"Sure, we just got to turn your reputation around. Everyone s eyes are already on you, so you just have to shine."

"Shine?" Scorpius scoffed as the three of them sat down on the dinner table. "How? My family's name is in tatters. You hear what they say about me."

"They know only what our parents have told them. I see how you look every time someone says your surname. You just have to keep doing well and they'll change the way they see you soon enough. With some help from us two of course."

"Wait how are we going to help?" Al asked confused.

"Your surname turns head doesn't it?" Jason asked. Al flushed a brilliant red and nodded. How could he not turn heads, when he and his father looked exactly the same. Al's brother had taken after his mother in looks, but Al looked like his father, the resemblance was uncanny to Scorpius who had seen pictures of Harry when he was younger.

"Anyway Scor, keep up the grades, the quidditch, hang with us and they'll all come to love you." Jason said happily whilst stabbing a piece of beef with his fork.

"Exactly what are you planning?" Al asked Jason shakily. Scorpius grinned at Al. The question had popped up in his mind too, exactly what did Jason.

"Me? I just want to enjoy my time here and make friends."

"Bullshit." Scorpius said plainly. "The hat didn't even hesitate to put you in slytherin. You aren't a hufflepuff."

"I learned in primary school that life is easier when everyone loves you." Jason replied.

"Wait, so do you even like all these people you're making friends with?" Al asked.

"Hell no, apart from you two and Alice, most are pretty boring." Jason replied happily.

"You're evil you know." Scorpius replied grinning. "Now I see why you got put in Slytherin without a moments thought."

"Hey, I'm perfectly nice!" Jason retorted. Al and Scorpius laughed at this. "Okay, maybe not that nice." Jason said again also laughing.

At this point they were joined by Dexter and Alice.

"So I heard you two got into the quidditch team. That's amazing." Dexter gushed. "First year seeker like your dad, Al. Can't wait to watch!" Al said nothing and blushed.

"You boys and quidditch, don't you have anything better to talk about?" Alice chimed in. "All everyone's talking about is how you Al is like his dad and Malfoy's the youngest chaser in forty years and whether he's big enough."

"Quidditch is serious business Alice." Jason replied. "Anyway, tell us, what's the gossip. Don't leave anything out."

"Gossip, not much really apart from you two. Oh and Amanda Davies and Connor O'Donnel are now going out together."

"Who?" Al asked. "Wait, why is that even gossip? Just the idea of kissing and stuff is all a bit horrible if you ask me."

"Who asked you?" Alice replied coolly.

"Oh, Al. You've never even kissed a girl have you?" Jason asked good-naturedly.

"Of course not, why would I want to stick my lips on some girl." Al replied heatedly, his face flushing.

"Scor, what about you?" Alice asked her brown eyes boring into his. Scorpius felt himself flush and shook his head shyly. He hadn't even had friends, so how could he have kissed a girl.

"And of course, Jason is going to tell us he has." Dexter piped in.

"Why, you jealous?" Jason replied coolly. "And yes I have, it was in summer. Renee Clarke. Pretty girl with long hair and green eyes. We even snogged. It's a lot of fun."

"Ew." Al replied pretending to be sick into his plate. The rest of the table laughed.

"My mother always says 'don't knock it till you've tried it'." Scorpius replied.

"Yeah, to get you to eat vegetables as a kid maybe." Al replied with a snicker. Scorpius frowned, she had indeed said it to do just that. "Wait, she did?" Al asked, his face growing into a brighter grin. Scorpius nodded flushing so red, that he looked much like the tomato on his plate. Those around descended into hysterics.

"Don't worry, as far as snogging goes, it's a great deal nicer than eating veg." Jason said.

"How can sticking your tongue in a girls mouth feel nice?" Al asked, still a little disgusted.

"Try it and find out for yourself. Find a nice pretty girl and kiss her." Jason replied.

"Easier said than done." Dexter piped in. "I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"Well let me give you a demonstration." Jason said. He turned to Alice, looking into her eyes, ran his hand down her cheek caressing it. Alice flushed an amazing shade of red, and she began to tremble as he moved in closer. And then just as he got really close he pulled away with a giggle. "Just like that, boys." Alice shook her head in disbelief.

"My dad warned me about boys like you, he said I should kick them in the nuts or hex them." Alice finally said after composing herself.

"It was just a demonstration. No need to attack me." Jason said with his hands up as if to surrender.

"I'll let you off this one time, but do it again and you'll regret it." Alice replied scathingly, her voice dropping in volume and sounding colder than Scorpius had ever heard it. He felt a shiver run through him as it reminded him of his mother's voice when she was very angry.

"I'm sorry." Jason replied looking a bit meeker. However Scorpius couldn't help but note the slight smirk on Jason's face as he looked away from Alice.

Scorpius uncomfortably took a look around the room. His eyes lingered on the Gryffindor table where they found the eyes of James Potter. The moment the two locked eyes, James' eyes narrowed into a glare. Scorpius glared back.

"What's up?" Al asked, tapping Scorpius on the shoulder at the same time. Al followed Scorpius' gaze over to the other table. "Ignore him." Al hissed. "He's just being a git." Scorpius turned around to look at Al, in disbelief.

"He's your brother." Scorpius said.

"So, he's being a git to me and now he's staring you down. Ignore him." Al replied heatedly. "Anyway I'm done eating, you ready to go?" Scorpius nodded pushing his plate away.

"Coming Jason?" Al asked.

"Nah, I want to go talk to the Ravenclaws briefly. Need to make sure when their try-outs for quidditch are." Jason replied. "You two go ahead, I'll catch up to you."

The two boys stood up and walked out of Great Hall and began to make their way back to the dungeons. They didn't get far however.

"Malfoy!" A voice called out, ringing through the hallway. Scorpius and Al exchanged looks before turning around. Behind them stood James Potter his wand pointed at them.

"What do you want, James?" Al asked with a sigh.

"Al have you gone mad. Why are you even walking around with... Malfoy?" James asked, spitting out the word Malfoy with severe distaste as if he had just eating a vomit flavoured bean.

"Because I want to." Al replied coolly. He then turned to Scorpius. "Come on, let s go."

"Petrificus Totalus!" cried out James, the hex striking Scorpius. He tried to move, willing himself, but he had no control over his body at all. "Run along Al, your friend and I are going to have a little... chat." From the corner of his eye he could see Al reach into his robes to pull out his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" James cried out again, Al's wand flying over to him. "You would raise your wand against your own brother, in defence of... this... death eater spawn?"

Scorpius mentally struggled harder. He felt anger surge through him as he was forced to look at James Potter who was calling him things he was not. He had never felt such anger in his life.

"I would. He's been a far better friend to me since I met him than you have." Al replied scathingly.

"So, you ditch Gryffindor for scum like him. And now you choose him over your own family. You're a traitor. You even chose him over Rose."

"He never did anything wrong. Rose did! You all call him..." Al paused, not even wanting to say what Scorpius knew was whispered behind his back. He felt a wave of gratitude coarse through him. "You call him that but you don't even know him. You don't even know his father. He's never done anything to you!"

"I've been told what his father was like! And in case it's slipped your notice, he's in Slytherin too like his father! Stay away from him!" James shouted, waving about his hands for emphasis.

"I'm a Slytherin too. You think I'm evil now?" Al replied.

"No, but you have betrayed your own family. Now run along before I hex you, traitor." James said coldly, his eyes narrowing. "I'll give you can collect your wand tomorrow."

Al shook his head and dived for his wand. James threw a stinging hex at him.

"Oww!" Al cried out, rubbing his hand.

"I told you to go!" James said. "Now go!" Al ran off, Scorpius noticed tear tracks staining his face. He felt even more angry and wished more than anything that he could grab his wand.

"As for you. STAY AWAY FROM MY BROTHER." James shouted. He then fired three stinging hexes at Scorpius. Scorpius felt the stings all over but he could do nothing. He had to just stand there and watch. "Oh and, let me do this for good measure. Diffindo!" Scorpius watched as his robes were neatly severed into two and fell down on the ground leaving him in his boxers. James walked off laughing at his handy work.

It was another ten minutes before Scorpius saw anyone. It had given him time to stew in his rage as he was left there, paralysed on the spot, cold. He heard voices coming his way to find Al walking over quickly with Notts.

"Finite Incantatum." Notts said pointing his wand at Scorpius. "Who did this?" he demanded.

"No one." Scorpius replied before Al could even say anything. He tried to convey to Al with his eyes not to say anything. Al must have got the message because he simply nodded.

"I don't believe you for a second, but I won't force it out of you. Be more careful." and with that Notts walked off.

Scorpius took out his wand and pointed it at his robes.

"Reparo." The robes nitted themselves back together and he put them back on. Al walked over to him with wide eyes.

"Why did you do that?" Al asked Scorpius. "Why didn't you tell him?"

"It's not his problem, it's yours and mine."

"Huh?"

"It's not his place to deal with your brother. We have to."

"Just what are you planning?" Al asked sounding a little worried. Scorpius looked at Al, a large smirk gracing his face and his eyes turning hard like steel.

"Revenge."

* * *

><p>So I kind of like how this chapter turned out. Things are going to get moving a lot faster now by the way. When I say that I mean I'm going to start speeding through the months and the years. I need to get them to a really suitable age. I shan't time skip too much though. Read and Review! I have plenty of people with this story on story alert and nobody reviewing. Reviews are my motivation and inspiration! So <strong>REVIEW AND FLAME<strong>


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